404 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



The stomachs contained nothing but grass; it is a grazing, 

 not a browsing animal. 



There were some white egrets not, as is usually the 

 case with both rhinos and elephants, the cow heron, but the 

 slender, black-legged, yellow-toed egret on the rhinos, 

 and the bodies and heads of both the cow and calf looked 

 as though they had been splashed with streaks of white- 

 wash. One of the egrets returned after the shooting and 

 perched on the dead body of the calf. 



The heat was intense, and our gun-bearers at once 

 began skinning the animals, lest they should spoil; and 

 that afternoon Cuninghame and Heller came out from 

 camp with tents, food, and water, and Heller cared for 

 the skins on the spot, taking thirty-six hours for the job. 

 The second night he was visited by a party of lions, which 

 were after the rhinoceros meat and came within fifteen 

 feet of the tents. 



On the same night that Heller was visited by the lions 

 we had to fight fire in the main camp. At noon we noticed 

 two fires come toward us, and could soon hear their roar- 

 ing. The tall, thick grass was like tinder; and if we let the 

 fires reach camp we were certain to lose everything we had. 

 So Loring, Mearns, Kermit, and I, who were in camp, got 

 out the porters and cut a lane around our tents and goods; 

 and then started a back fire, section after section, from the 

 other side of this lane. We kept every one ready, with 

 branches and wet gunny-sacks, and lit each section in turn, 

 so that we could readily beat out the flames at any point 

 where they threatened. The air was still, and soon after 

 nightfall our back fire had burnt fifty or a hundred yards 

 away from camp, and the danger was practically over. 



