As the Rhinoceros, whatever its species, seeks the densest covert, and
its hide is almost impenetrable, it is a difficult animal to bag. Its
peltry being of about the same consistency and thickness as the
vulcanized India Rubber used in cushioning billiard tables, balls often
rebound from it without producing a score. This difficulty may, however,
be obviated--according to Sir SAMUEL BAKER--by firing half-pound shells
from the shoulder, with a rifle of proportionate size, and if the
Sporting Bulletins of that enterprising traveller are not shots with the
long bow, he carried the war into Africa to some purpose, not
unfrequently bagging his Baker's dozen of Rhinoceroses in the course of
forty-eight hours. The African and the Asiatic species bear a general
resemblance to each other, although probably, if placed side by side,
points of difference would be observed between them.

It is a disputed question among Biblical commentators whether the
Rhinoceros or the Hippopotamus is the Behemoth of Scripture, but as the
Rhinoceros feeds on furze and the Hippopotamus does not, it would seem
that the terminal syllable "moth" more properly applies to the latter.
As numerous fossil remains of the animal have been found from time to
time in the Rhenish provinces of Germany, it is supposed by some
archaeologists that prior to the Noachian Deluge its principal habitat
was the Valley of the Rhine, where it was known as the Rhine-horse. The
"horse," it is alleged, was subsequently corrupted into "hoss,"
whereupon the lexicographers, uncertain which of the two renderings was
the true one, called it in their vocabularies the "Rhine horse or hoss,"
and thence the present still more senseless corruption, "Rhinoceros."
This is, of course, mere theory, but it is supported by the well
authenticated parallel case of the Nylghau--more properly Nile
Ghaut--which derived its name from the singular fact that it was never
seen by any human being in the neighborhood of the Ghauts of the Nile.