402 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



noceros seemed to spend the heat of the day in sleep, and 

 to feed in the morning and evening, and perhaps through- 

 out the night; and to drink in the evening and morning, 

 usually at some bay or inlet of the river. In the morning 

 they walked away from the water for an hour or two, until 

 they came to a place which suited them for the day's sleep. 

 Unlike the ordinary rhinoceros, the square-mouthed rhi- 

 noceros feeds exclusively on grass. Its dung is very differ- 

 ent; we only occasionally saw it deposited in heaps, ac- 

 cording to the custom of its more common cousin. The 

 big, sluggish beast seems fond of nosing the ant-hills of red 

 earth, both with its horn and with its square muzzle; it 

 may be that it licks them for some saline substance. It 

 is apparently of less solitary nature than the prehensile- 

 lipped rhino, frequently going in parties of four or five 

 or half a dozen individuals. 



We did not get an early start. Hour after hour we 

 plodded on, under the burning sun, through the tall, tangled 

 grass, which was often higher than our heads. Continu- 

 ally we crossed the trails of elephant and more rarely of 

 rhinoceros, but the hard, sunbaked earth and stiff, tinder- 

 dry long grass made it a matter of extreme difficulty to tell 

 if a trail was fresh, or to follow it. Finally, Kermit and 

 his gun-bearer, Kassitura, discovered some unquestionably 

 fresh footprints which those of us who were in front had 

 passed over. Immediately we took the trail, Kongoni and 

 Kassitura acting as trackers, while Kermit and I followed 

 at their heels. Once or twice the two trackers were puz- 

 zled, but they were never entirely at fault; and after half 

 an hour Kassitura suddenly pointed toward a thorn-tree 

 about sixty yards off. Mounting a low ant-hill I saw 



