yo BIG GAME SHOOTING 



but the sportsman, unused to the habits of this 

 kind of game, would do well not to attempt to 

 take any liberties with it. There have been 

 many accidents from the charge of the black rhino- 

 ceros. Oswell, for example, who had a serious 

 mishap with a white rhinoceros, was nearly finished 

 off altogether by one of the black species. The 

 great beast came close upon him, as he lay in the 

 grass, and he had to run. He was chased, tossed 

 high into the air, and so severely wounded in the 

 thigh as to be crippled for some time. One of Mr. 

 C. V. A. Peel's Somali hunters was tossed in Somali- 

 land, a few years since, but escaped with his life. A 

 native, hunting with C. J. Andersson towards the 

 Okavango, was, as he lay concealed by a tuft of bush, 

 slain with a single lightning-like stroke of a black 

 rhinoceros's horn, his skull being cleft, and his brains 

 scattered on the soil. And many other serious and 

 even fatal mishaps have taken place in Africa from 

 the charge or attack of this rhinoceros. It is, how- 

 ever, consoling to remember that if the first charge 

 of the beast can be dodged or avoided, he commonly 

 blunders straight on and returns no more. In nine- 

 teen cases out of twenty it may be said that the 

 sportsman will safely bag his rhino without much 

 trouble or difficulty. But in the twentieth he may 

 meet with an irascible, troublesome beast which may 

 give him some very uncomfortable moments. 



If it were not for the rhinoceros birds which are 

 so frequently found in attendance on this animal, the 

 rhinoceros would be much more often surprised at 



