78 LARGE GAME. chap. ii. 



an old water-course beyond, and if it had strength to do 

 this, there was no doubt it would also have strength suffi- 

 cient to make itself very formidable when we found it. 

 As we neared the edge of these trees, the wind, which had 

 hitherto been coming in little puffs from every point of 

 the compass, could be felt blowing on our backs, rendering 

 it no longer safe to follow the animal by its spoor, and we 

 had therefore to turn oflP, and, keeping well out on the 

 flat, to go down the water-course for half a mile, and 

 then, crossing it, to go for about three times that distance 

 up it, when we concluded that the rhinoceros was probably 

 lying somewhere between us and the spot at which its 

 spoor had entered, a mile lower down. The fringe of 

 jungle which bordered the water-course on either side was 

 nowhere more than thii-ty yards across, and though, as in 

 all semi-moist positions, there were a good number of 

 evergreen bushes, which made some spots very gloomy 

 and dark, yet on the whole it was pretty open, and had 

 a fair sprinkling of trees easy to chmb, and sufficiently 

 large to protect one even from so powerful an animal. 



It was decided that I and one hunter should search the 

 ground on the side on which it had entered, while the 

 other should keep parallel with us on the opposite side as 

 well as he could, and that, if possible, whoever found it 

 first should warn the others of his having done so by 

 makmg the bird-call in common use among hunters, and 

 on this understanding we entered the thicket. When we 

 had gone about half a mile, my companion, who was nearer 

 the water-course than I, called me with a low whistle, and 

 on going to the spot I found him bending over the fresh 

 imprint of a rhinoceros's foot, though he was uncertain 



