166 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURXAL 



two on the open rolling plains and they, 

 having scented us, began to charge 

 around looking for the trouble. Their 

 snorts evidently aroused another who 

 was sleeping in the grass, for in a few 

 moments three of them were charging 

 back and forth instead of two. The 

 appearance of the third rather disturbed 

 me, as I was carrying a gun with only 

 two shots and Dugmore had nothing 

 but the camera. 



The rhinoceroses suddenly halted three 

 abreast at only forty yards and stood 

 there waiting for something to happen. 

 Although this was the picture we had 

 been running through this danger for, 

 Dugmore showed his judgment in not 

 snapping the camera, fearing that even 

 this slight sound would bring the three 

 enraged beasts down on us. As we 

 stood motionless, Dugmore with the 

 camera and I with the gun leveled on 

 the head of the biggest one, our hearts 

 going like trip hammers wondering what 

 was to be our fate, one of the beasts 

 wheeled and ran and the others followed 

 immediately. The tension was moment- 

 arily relieved, but when I saw Dugmore 

 chasing after one that had separated 

 from the others, my anxiety returned 

 and I followed with my big gun to pro- 

 tect him. The rhinoceros made better 

 time than we could and the gap between 

 us continued to lengthen as he made oflF 

 over the plains. We gave him up and 

 took a short cut back toward our boys, 

 who had been in the background while 

 we were photographing the animals. 



As we topped a little knoll, we saw 

 about one hundred yards ahead of us 

 in the yellow grass, the black outline of 

 a rhinoceros' back. We approached to 

 about eighty yards off where we had a 

 good view of him, and from this point 



Dugmore took a telephoto picture. Al- 

 though in plain sight we moved slowly 

 and cautiously toward him and at about 

 sixty yards Dugmore took another 

 picture. Being sure of two pictures, he 

 then changed his lens to one with a 

 shorter focus while the rhinoceros showed 

 no sign of knowledge of our presence. 

 We walked to a spot about forty yards 

 from him, where Dugmore focused the 

 camera, while the rhinoceros deliberately 

 lay down. This was a sure sign that we 

 had not been detected and we both gave 

 a sigh of relief. 



Dugmore however whispered " Splen- 

 did! Now we can walk up very close 

 without his seeing us." This was no 

 place for an argument, so as he started 

 forward I followed, my finger on the 

 trigger of the gun. As each cautious 

 step brought us closer and closer — and 

 my breath grew shorter and shorter — 

 I wondered if Dugmore were ever going 

 to stop I At a little over twenty yards 

 from the big rocklike mass he hesitated 

 and began to focus his camera, while 

 the rhinoceros' ears twitched nervously. 

 My gun, which seemed to weigh many 

 tens of pounds, came slowly to my 

 shoulder. The next moment there was 

 a snort, a cloud of dust, and a big 

 rhinoceros was coming straight at us, 

 I set my teeth, held the gun and listened 

 for the click of the camera. 



Dugmore let him get well on his feet 

 and under way, when a "click" and a 

 "bang" in quick succession decided the 

 battle in our favor. At fifteen yards 

 distance the rhinoceros bit the dust, 

 scrambled to his feet, wheeled and made 

 off. — It was through many such in- 

 stances of daring disregard for danger 

 that Dugmore achieved his splendid 

 success in African game photography. 



