258 HUNTING ADVENTURES. 



the softness of the vley, we labored on till sundown, a ad L/ily ssc- 

 cee^ded in bringing one wagon to its destination, the other two re- 

 maining fast in the mud in the middle of the vley. Next morning, 

 '.uckily, the weather cleared up, when my men brought over the 

 tent, and in the afternoon the other two wagons. 



We followed up the banks of the river for several days with 

 the usual allowance of sport. On the 16th we came suddenly upon 

 an immense old bull muchocho rolling in mud. He sprang to his 

 feet immediately he saw me, and charging up the bank, so frightened 

 our horses, that before I could get my rifle from my after-rider he 

 was past us. I then gave him chase, and after a hard gallop of 

 about a mile, sprang from my horse and gave him a good shot 

 behind the shoulder. At this moment a cow rhinoceros of the 

 same species, with her calf, charged out of some wait-a-bit thorn . 

 cover, and stood right in my path. Observing that she carried an 

 unusually long horn, I turned my attention from the bull to her, 

 and, after a very long and severe chase, dropped her at the sixth 

 shot. I carried one of my rifles, which gave me much trouble, 

 that not being the tool required for this sort of work, where quick 

 loading is indispensable. 



After breakfast I sent men to cut off the head of this rhinoceros, 

 and proceeded with Ruyter to take up the spoor of the bull 

 wounded in the morning. We found that he was very severely 

 hit, and having followed the spoor for about a mile through very 

 dense thorn cover, he suddenly rustled out of the bushes close 

 ahead of us, accompanied by a whole host of rhinoceros birds. 1 

 mounted my horse and gave him chase, and in a few minutes he 

 hud received four severe shots. I managed to turn his course 

 toward camp, when I ceased firing, as he seemed to be nearly 

 done up, and Ruyter and I rode slowly behind, occasionally shout- 

 ing to guide his course. Presently, however, Chukuroo ceased 

 taking any notice of us, and held leisurely on for the river, into a 

 shallow part of which he walked, and after panting there anc? 

 turning about for a quarter of an hour, he fell over and expired. 

 This was a remarkably fine old bull, and from his dentition it was 

 *ot improbable that a hundred summers had seen him roaming a 



