266 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



the branches; and we made our way back to camp through 

 the darkness. 



The other day made amends. It was Kermit's turn to 

 shoot an elephant, and mine to shoot a rhinoceros; and each 

 of us was to act as the backing gun for the other. In the 

 forenoon, we saw a bull rhino with a good horn walking 

 over the open downs. A convenient hill enabled us to cut 

 him off without difficulty, and from its summit we killed 

 him at the base, fifty or sixty yards off. His front horn 

 was nearly twenty-nine inches long; but though he was 

 an old bull, his total length, from tip of nose to tip of tail, 

 was only twelve feet, and he was, I should guess, not more 

 than two-thirds the bulk of the big bull I killed in the Sotik. 



We rested for an hour or two at noon, under the shade 

 of a very old tree with glossy leaves, and orchids growing 

 on its gnarled, hoary limbs, while the unsaddled horses 

 grazed, and the gun-bearers slept near by, the cool moun- 

 tain air, although this was mid-day under the equator, 

 making them prefer the sunlight to the shade. When we 

 moved on it was through a sea of bush ten or fifteen feet 

 high, dotted here and there with trees; and riddled in every 

 direction by the trails of elephant, rhinoceros, and buffalo. 

 Each of these animals frequents certain kinds of country to 

 which the other two rarely or never penetrate; but here they 

 all three found ground to their liking. Except along their 

 winding trails, which were tunnels where the jungle was 

 tall, it would have been practically impossible to traverse 

 the thick and matted cover in which they had made their 

 abode. 



We could not tell what moment we might find our- 

 selves face to face with some big beast at such close quar- 



