6 4 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



so that the sportsman might, and often did, com- 

 pletely escape its observation, while standing or lying 

 motionless, even although the great creature passed 

 within a dozen yards. These animals were extremely 

 shy and inoffensive, and unless absolutely attacked 

 would nearly always run the instant they got wind 

 of a human being. A shot well planted through 

 heart or both lungs would usually account for a white 

 rhinoceros pretty quickly, but if not well hit they 

 would run for miles and probably escape. From its 

 enormous bulk and weight, a heavy bullet, from a .4- 

 to .8-bore, was usually deemed necessary in attacking 

 this game ; but the powerful modern weapons now 

 in use, a .400 or .450, using smokeless powder, and 

 a solid bullet of not less than 480 grains, would be 

 quite sufficient to achieve the downfall even of so 

 mighty a quadruped. 



Occasionally the white rhinoceros, inoffensive and 

 retiring though it was upon most occasions, would, 

 when wounded or worried by hunters, turn upon 

 them. Oswell was once hunting one of these animals 

 in Bechuanaland, and had severely wounded it. His 

 horse took fright and refused to stir, and the huge 

 beast, walking quietly up, thrust its long fore-horn 

 clean through it, and tossed both horse and rider into 

 the air, killing the one and severely hurting the other. 

 Mr. W. Finaughty, a great Matabeleland hunter in 

 the old days, was also badly injured by one of these 

 rhinoceroses in the Mashona country, about a genera- 

 tion since, and other serious and even fatal accidents 

 have occurred with these animals. 



