116 HIPPO AND LEOPARD [ch. v 



impeded. At the far end of the thicket we examined 

 the grass to see if the rhino had passed out, and sure 

 enough there was the spoor, with so much blood along 

 both sides that it was evident the animal was badly hit. 

 It led across this space and into another thicket of the 

 same character as the first, and again we stole cautiously 

 along the edge some ten yards out, I had taken the 

 heavy Holland double-barrel, and with the safety catch 

 pressed forward under my thumb, I trod gingerly 

 through the grass, peering into the thicket and expec- 

 tant of developments. In a minute there was a furious 

 snorting and crashing directly opposite us in the thicket, 

 and I brought up my rifle, but the rhino did not quite 

 place us, and broke out of the co\'er in front, some 

 thirty yards away, and I put both barrels into and 

 behind the shoulder. The terrific striking force of the 

 heavy gun told at once, and the rhino wheeled, and 

 struggled back into the thicket, and we heard it fall. 

 With the utmost caution, bending and creeping under 

 the branches, we made our way in, and saw the beast 

 lying with its head toward us. We thought it was 

 dead, but would take no chances, and I put in another, 

 but, as it proved, needless, heavy bullet. 



It was an old female, considerably smaller than the 

 bull 1 had already shot, with the front horn measuring 

 fourteen inches as against his nineteen inches ; as always 

 wdth rhinos, it was covered with ticks, which clustered 

 thickly in the folds and creases of the skin, around and 

 in the ears, and in all the tender places. McMillan sent 

 out an ox-waggon and brought it in to the house, where 

 we weighed it. It was a little over two thousand two 

 hundred pounds. It had evidently been in the neigh- 

 bourhood in which we found it for a considerable time, 

 for a few hundred yards away we found its stamping 



