XVII BLACK RHINOCEROS SEEN 361 



very numerous about here ; and as we expected soon 

 to come up with the elephants, we thought we might 

 venture to follow them a little farther, keeping, of 

 course, a sharp look-out all the time on our horses. 

 It was shortly after this that the elephants we were 

 following led us to the spoor of another large troop, 

 also fresh. For some time the spoors were mixed, 

 then that of the bulls turned to the left and again 

 made for the "fly." Upon seeing this we resolved 

 to leave the bulls — though we would far rather have 

 shot them — and take the spoor of the troop, as it 

 was leading us in a direction that would soon take us 

 beyond the limit of the " fly," Shortly after making 

 this turn we rode on to a black rhinoceros, the first 

 animal we had seen that day. He honoured us with 

 a hard stare, and then wheeling round trotted ofi^, 

 and disappeared in the bushes. 



About I P.M. we off-saddled our horses for the 

 first time that day, and had scarcely done so when 

 three heavy shots, fired almost simultaneously, fell in 

 the direction the spoor was taking, and at no great 

 distance. Making sure it was some of Wood's Kafir 

 hunters firing at the elephants we were following, we 

 saddled up again, and cantered along the spoor, but, 

 from the direction it took, soon found that the shots 

 we had heard could not have been fired at the 

 elephants. We now stuck to the spoor without a 

 halt till about an hour and a half before sundown, 

 when, fearing that it would get dark before we came 

 up with them, we took our guns and galloped on, 

 for the spoor was now becoming fresher every instant, 

 and as the elephants were feeding nicely, easy to follow, 

 by the machabel leaves alone, that lay scattered along 

 the track. 



I may here say that I was this day mounted on an 



