Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 September 1892 — Possesses the Thickest Skin. [ARTICLE]

Possesses the Thickest Skin.

The whale may claim to have a skin thicker than any other animal. It has a skin nowhere less than several inches, and in many parts fully two feet, in thickness. The distinction of being the thickest skinned quadruped belongs to the Indian rhinoceros, whose hide has a knotty or granulated surface, and is so impenetrable as to resist the claws of the lion or tiger, and the sword or bullet from old-fashioned Smooth-bore muskets. So stiff and hard is this skin that were it not divided by creases or folds the animal imprisoned in its armor cold scarcely move. The skin of the hippopotamus runs that of the rhinoceros very closely as regards thickness.