Lake Victoria to Khartoum 



startled as he was. We stood for fully half a 

 minute stupidly staring at one another before he 

 realized that I was a specimen of his sworn 

 enemy, man ; and I, that he was one of the rare 

 white rhinos. 



The great brute, after pondering the matter 

 carefully in his dense, pig-like fashion, evidently 

 came to the conclusion that he had little desire 

 for further acquaintance, so turned his unwieldy 

 carcase in the narrow way. I had by this time 

 gathered my scattered senses sufficiently to turn 

 off the safety-catch of the rifle, and let drive at 

 his neck which he offered to my shot as he turned 

 to disappear. The bullet took immediate effect ; 

 he measured his length on the floor, and lay like 

 a huge dark boulder on the shimmering sand. 

 This was great good fortune, for, as I have said, 

 all thoughts of white rhino had vanished ages 

 before, and the luck in even setting eyes on one 

 was little short of stupendous. 



However, there he lay in all his glory. White 

 be hanged ! — grey-black in colour, instead of the 

 plain black of his East African brother ; square- 

 lipped like a cow — the square lip is his special 

 sign-manual ; and the owner of two nice horns, 

 the anterior one being 36!^ inches. A trophy to 

 be proud of. 



The hacking off of the horns took some little 

 while, so that by the time they were ready 

 twilight was beginning to fall. Meanwhile I had 



278 



