THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA 



a shotgun, I had gone up into the dense bush near the 

 Kijabe Railroad station to shoot a small antelope for my 

 table. We had walked fifteen to twenty minutes, when we 

 suddenly came across fresh rhinoceros tracks, but, as we 

 had only gone out for the antelope, we left the track and 

 went in the direction of an open place, overgrown with 

 grass, where the natives had told me that they had seen 

 the antelopes feeding about an hour before. Just before 

 we reached this place, the vicious old rhino dashed out 

 at us from the thick bush. My men disappeared as if 

 swallowed up by the ground, and, although I turned around 

 as quickly as possible, the rhino's head was not more than 

 two yards and a half from the muzzle of the gun when 

 I pulled the trigger of the little Mannlicher. The beast 

 fell instantly, but the momentum of his charge hurled his 

 body to my very feet. I assure the reader that it is no ex- 

 aggeration to say that it was actually less than six inches 

 between the rhino's nose and my left foot ! Had the bullet 

 not found the brain, nothing in the world could have saved 

 me from being killed by the ugly brute. This rhino must 

 have been very old, for his horn, so powerful at its base, 

 was worn down until probably only one third of its original 

 length remained. 



The scent of the rhinoceros is very sharp indeed, and 

 in this respect he is exceeded only by the elephant. I have 

 tried on the open plains to see how far a rhinoceros would 

 be able to scent a couple of men if the wind was not too 

 light. Rhinos that were feeding with their noses to the 

 ground and evidently not suspecting any danger at all, 

 scented us often at a distance of from two hundred and 

 fifty to three hundred yards. When the big pachyderm 



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