THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA 



very large one. As I had never seen a rhinoceros yet in 

 his wild state, and was most anxious to secure a fine 

 specimen for the museum, besides having the excitement 

 of a rhinoceros hunt, I flung away my writing parapher- 

 nalia, took a couple of guns, the gun bearer and a few men, 

 and followed the tracker. 



We soon had to go through an almost Impenetrable 

 jungle, where we in places had to crawl on hands and feet 

 to be able to advance at all. After two hours of such hard 

 marching in the pouring rain, we finally found the fresh 

 rhinoceros track. Having followed it for another hour 

 through similar circumstances, the men suddenly stopped 

 and consulted with one another. They then all tried to 

 make me understand that it was no use to go any farther, 

 because the " rhino had gone too far away." But I gath- 

 ered enough, from what they had said, to understand that 

 they were afraid to follow the beast any longer in this ter- 

 rible jungle. I was sure that they wanted to deceive me, 

 and that they were simply tired of the pursuit and afraid 

 to go any farther, as we could plainly see that not only one, 

 but two rhinos had passed over the same path, one after 

 the other. I upbraided them for their cowardice, and 

 told them to go ahead, and that under no circumstances 

 would I return to camp before we had at least seen the 

 rhinos. 



Now they came straight out and told me that it was a 

 most dangerous undertaking to follow two of these big 

 brutes in such dense jungle. They said that if I per- 

 sisted in going any farther I would have to take the lead 

 myself and they would follow close behind me. This I 

 did without hesitation, fortunately exchanging the .405 



144 



