--j^ Rhinoceroses 



it is most difficult tor men to make their way, such as 

 jessamine, smilax. pterolobium, toddaha, and blackberry 

 bushes. In dry weather these regions provide for all 

 the wants of both the elephant and the rhinoceros, 

 and they keep to them tor the most part. They render 

 all incursion into these strongholds ot theirs a very 

 perilous undertaking. 



However, it the wind tells them ot our approach, or 

 if we make the slightest noise, they generally either clatter 

 away from us down-hill, or else they remain absolutely 

 still and motionless in their basin-like haunts, which we 

 come upon every hundred yards or so. It the wind be 

 favourable, we may reckon upon encountering them at 

 short range and under riskv conditions, especiall\' it we 

 meet several ot them together. Even the Wandorobo 

 and Wakamba are not keen about venturing into these 

 rhinoceros-strongholds, and I must admit that, atter several 

 exciiiriQ^ experiences in such regions, I have no oreat 

 desire to make my way into them again. 1 his is not, 

 indeed, the place tor the hunter who relies entirely upon 

 his own gun, as I always did, and who has not a body- 

 guard ot natives around him ready to blaze away when 

 necessary. In these circumstances, too, you have to shoot 

 anything in the shape ot a rhinoceros you see, old or 

 young, male or female, it you care about your own satety. 

 And this is not a pleasant kind of sport. But even 

 when you allow your men to shoot in these pathless 

 thickets — in which you have to grope torward one by one, 

 unable to see where you are gomg — there is apt to be 

 great danger ot their shooting each other. 



