ii4 TRAPPING WILD ANIMALS 



must capture, has a more difficult job. He must 

 work and build his trap at the very spot frequented 

 by the animal and he must do so without exciting 

 suspicion. A rhinoceros seldom charges when he 

 sees a man, and his charge is not dangerous, for he 

 is short-sighted and cannot gauge his direction 

 accurately. Most often he runs, and it is almost 

 impossible, even when the collector can find him 

 again, to chase or lure him back to the trap. 



No animals were at the puddle when we arrived, 

 and I had a good opportunity to examine the loca- 

 tion. Then we withdrew and I told the men how 

 we should go about making the capture. We made 

 camp, building platforms between the trees for liv- 

 ing-quarters, and I detailed some of the men to the 

 work on a rattan net, which measured twenty by 

 fifteen feet, with meshes ten inches square. I felt 

 that we had a good chance of getting a rhinoceros 

 in a net-trap and should save ourselves much time 

 and labor if we could do so. When the net was 

 ready, we put it in position at a likely-looking 

 approach half on the ground, where the animal 

 would step into it, and half suspended, so that he 

 would catch it with his head and bring it down 

 about him. 



Then we turned our attention to making pits. As 

 I have explained before, a heavy animal was sure 

 to injure himself in falling into a square pit such 

 as the natives generally dug, and, of course, an 

 injured animal would have been of no use to me. 



