X MR. EASTWOOD'S ADVENTURE 199 



James) Hayes-Sadler, dated •'Commissioner's Office, 

 Nairobi, September 28, 1906," the following passage 

 occurs : " This interesting Pachyderm (the black 

 rhinoceros), though sometimes a dangerous, is always 

 a stupid animal, and, from his bulk and the nature 

 of the country he inhabits, with but few exceptions 

 falls an easy prey. My experience of him, too, is 

 that in fairly open country he is easily driven away, 

 and that therefore the necessity of shooting to 

 protect life is not nearly so frequent as has some- 

 times been alleged." 



The opinion expressed in the above paragraph 

 concerning the black rhinoceros and the danger of 

 its pursuit has, I think, been proved to be fairly 

 accurate by the experience of the many sportsmen 

 (most of them utterly inexperienced in hunting 

 large and dangerous animals) who have visited 

 British East Africa in recent years ; for since Mr. 

 B. Eastwood was very badly injured, and indeed 

 had a most miraculous escape, near Lake Baringo, in 

 October 1902, from a rhinoceros which he thought 

 he had killed, but which got on to its feet again 

 and charged him after he had walked close up to 

 where it was lying, I have not heard of any other 

 accident having occurred in the hunting of these 

 animals, although during the three years ending 

 on March 31, 1906, no less than 308 black rhino- 

 ceroses were killed under sportsmen's and settlers' 

 licences in British East Africa, besides twenty- 

 three others which were shot on the border of the 

 same territory by the members of the Anglo-German 

 Boundary Commission. 



The big-game hunter of to-day is armed with 

 weapons which are vastly superior to those which 

 the old pioneer hunters of South Africa had to 

 rely upon in bygone times, and the dangers of 

 big-game hunting are, in consequence, now very 

 much less than they were then ; but still, judging 



