cH. IX] RHINOCEROS 201 



with these sluggish creatures, we made our preparations 

 in leisurely style, and with scant regard to the animal 

 itself. jNloreover we did not intend to kill any rhino 

 unless its horns were out of the common. I first 

 stalked and shot a buck Roberts' gazelle with a good 

 head. Then we ofF-saddled the horses and sat down to 

 lunch under a huge thorn-tree, which stood by itself, 

 lonely and beautiful, and offered a shelter from tlie 

 blazing sun. The game was grazing on every side, 

 and I kept thinking of all the life of the wilderness, 

 and of its many tragedies, which the great tree must 

 have witnessed during the centuries since it was a 

 seedling. 



Lunch over, I looked to the loading of tlie heavy 

 rifle, and we started toward the rhinos, well to leeward. 

 But the wind shifted every way ; and suddenly my 

 gun- bearers called my attention to the rhinos, a quarter 

 of a mile off, saying, " He charging, he charging." 

 Sure enougli, they had cauglit our wind, and were 

 rushing toward us. I jumped off the horse and studied 

 the oncoming beasts through my field-glass ; but head 

 on it was hard to tell about the horns. However, the 

 wind shifted again, and when two hundred yards oif 

 they lost our scent, and tui-ned to one side, tails in the 

 air, heads tossing, evidently much excited. They were 

 a large cow and a young heifer, nearly two-thirds grown. 

 As they trotted sideways I could see the cow's horns, 

 and her doom was sealed ; for they were of good length, 

 and the hind one (it proved to be two feet long) was 

 slightly longer than the stouter front one ; it was a 

 specimen which the Museum needed. 



So after them we trudged over the brown plain. But 

 they were uneasy, and kept trotting and walking. They 

 never saw us with their dull eyes ; but a herd of wilde- 



