A Day on the German Boundary 



huts, some thirty feet long by fifteen across, with a 

 plentiful current of air passing under the roofs, 

 some twenty feet high. Open at each end, they 

 were cool in the heat of the day and comfortable 

 at night. Each officer had one to himself, and 

 others were built for the soldiers composing the 

 escort, and for the porters as well. 



One fine day my friend and I crossed the river 

 in the early dawn, before light, in our Berthon boat, 

 to trek back to our last camp and see if every- 

 thing had been properly taken away and that 

 nothing remained. We had sent a tent on in 

 front of us in which to pass the midday heat. 



This march would, as was invariably the case, 

 be combined with shooting, and by starting long 

 before dawn we hoped to get quietly to the outer 

 edge of the bush and some way into the open 

 plain beyond to try for the monster rhino which 

 inhabit these parts. I may say I am firmly con- 

 vinced that the rhino here carry bigger horns than 

 in a good many other places, because owing to the 

 heat they never appear by day, and therefore they 

 have to do their feeding in the plains by night, 

 and so they are seldom, if ever, seen. My reason 

 for saying this is because in other higher, and 

 therefore cooler, districts one tumbles on to eight 

 to ten in a morning on occasions, that is to say, 

 on the march up till twelve or one o'clock in the 

 afternoon. 



Well, we arrived, sat down in the open, and 



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