With Flashli'-ht and Rifle 



out in South Africa in the course of a few decades by 

 comparativ^ely primitive weapons, we ought certainly to 

 see the extinction ot the black rhinoceros in a much 

 shorter time with the help of the small-calibre long-range 

 rifle of to-day. 



Hunting the rhinoceros, as I imderstand it, when it is 

 carried out l)y the sportsman alone and in a sportsman- 

 like manner, must alwa\s be one of the most dangerous 

 sports possible. It is difficult to decide whether it is most 

 dangerous to hunt the lion, leopard, buftalo, elephant, or 

 rhinoceros. Everything depends on the circumstances 

 and surroundings in which these animals are enc<uintered. 

 Even when armed with the most trustworthy weapons, 

 stalking the African rhinoceros must always be an ex- 

 tremely dangerous undertaking, it it is done, as in my case, 

 alone and unaccompanied by other "guns." The English 

 traveller Thomson very graphically describes the feelings of 

 a hunter when he comes upon rhinoceroses in the grass, 

 and knows that his lite de})ends entirelv on his skill. 

 It is a puzzle to me how any one can assert that he 

 has jumped calmlv to one side when charged bv a rhino- 

 ceros, and tliat he has then given it the well-known 

 death-shot through the shoulder. I can say with con- 

 fidence, from my own experience, that this is absolutely 

 impossible. A rhinoceros that was realK charging down 

 on a man would get at his opponent under any circum- 

 stances and spit him on his horns. 



If this does not happen, either the animal has been 

 killed just at the last moment, or the hunter has managed 

 to climb a tree, a while-ant hill, or a rock, or els(; the 



2IO 



