XXII "THERE'S A RHINOCEROS" 483 



that ?) adding, " There's a rhinoceros " ; and looking 

 in the direction he pointed, we saw something dark 

 looming in the moonlight ; it was coming towards 

 us and we soon saw plainly that it was a black 

 rhinoceros. When he was about thirty yards from, 

 and half facing us, we both fired, dropping him on 

 his knees ; however, he was up again in an instant, 

 and wheeling round, went off at a gallop, snorting 

 loudly, across the open valley. We foUoweci the 

 path, plainly perceptible in the moonlight, that he 

 had made through the long thick grass ; by sweeping 

 our hands along it we could feel that it was wet 

 with blood, and we returned to camp, determined 

 to take up the spoor again on the morrow. 



Thus, at an early hour the following day, we 

 were once more upon his blood-stained tracks. For 

 about a mile he had never stopped galloping, and all 

 the time had been throwing blood in jets from 

 his nostrils in astonishing quantities, so that we 

 knew he had been struck in the lungs, and expected 

 to find him dead at every instant. After a time, 

 however, the blood almost ceased flowing, and he 

 seemed to have settled down to a very slow walk, 

 as we had great difficulty in following his spoor ; but 

 one of my Makalakas, with a patience and sagacity 

 which would have done credit to a Bushman, got it 

 away into some softer ground, and we then went 

 along briskly for several miles till we came to a place 

 where the animal had lain down and rolled in the 

 sand ; here there was a pool of blood. A little 

 farther on we found a second place where he had 

 been lying, and we then thought he was about done 

 for, but we were greatly mistaken ; he seemed to have 

 once more arisen, like a giant refreshed, and led us 

 for many a mile, always holding one course towards 



