SPORT ON THE RUKUSI STREAM. 75 



country was a favourite haunt of elephants and other game, more especially kudu, 

 which are found in great numbers on both sides of the Rukusi stream. 



On the 29th I went out to try to find elephant spoor, and, although I saw a lot 

 of cow elephants and a small bull which was not worth following, I could not find any 

 large spoor. However, we found the spoor of two bull rhinos. I feel sure both were 

 bulls as the spoors were large, and they were not a pair, so I followed the larger of the 

 two, which had gone off by himself. It was some time before we got it away from 

 the reeds and thorns bordering the bed of the stream, but at last it led us towards 

 the hilly country. At 10 a.m. we seemed to be still some way behind, so I sat down 

 and made some tea, and demolished a tin of sardines and some scones. Going on, 

 one of the men suddenly stopped and pointed at an object which looked exactly like 

 a grey rock. We stood and watched it, and opinions were divided as to whether 

 it was a rock or a rhino. 



Suddenly I saw the ears move, so I told the men to sit down and approached, 

 accompanied by a man named Machila. I had a single '400 cordite rifle by Fraser, 

 and Machila carried a magazine '303. Instead of whistling or making a noise 

 to make it stand up, I took a steady shot forward of the shoulder and fired." 



The "phut" of the bullet was the result, and the next instant the rhino was 

 standing up and looking very annoyed. The cartridge was difficult to eject, and 

 before I had reloaded the rhino's stern was disappearing into some long unburnt 

 grass. 



The glare from this light-coloured grass was blinding and I nearly ran into the 

 rhino, which had stopped to look round, as it had probably heard us coming. 



It did not take me long to get the rifle up and give it a slanting shot through the 

 right shoulder, which dropped it instantly. As its eyes blinked and ears kept 

 twitching, I gave it a shot with the '303 to make sure. The peculiar thing about this 

 rhino was that it had tried to grow a third horn, which I have before referred to. As 

 the run in the intense heat and glare had been rather exhausting, I made more tea 

 and after that went back to camp. There are a great many tsetse flies in this 

 country and they make their presence disagreeably felt all day long. 



On the 30th I went out with most of my men to cut off the rhino's head and to 

 bring in the meat. 



The following day, October ist, was a hard one, as I was out from dawn till dark 

 and could not get on any spoor worth following. I shot a roan antelope that had 

 evidently escaped from the clutches of a lion, for its neck and haunches were covered 

 with scars, and it was a wreck of a beast, with its ribs standing out and hip bones 

 forming lumps on the skin. This animal had only one horn. 



