HUNTING AND HUNTED IN BELGIAN CONGO 



shoulder. There was no hope for the beast against the 

 smashing power of the solid '450 bullet. Nevertheless I 

 was proud of having brought to earth one of these cumber- 

 some beasts, and stood gazing for some time at the 

 enormous mass of flesh with its little crimson streams. I 

 was always careful to have a blanket with me and food 

 sufficient for all for four days, so we camped close by for 

 the night. The boys and the two Shinzis who had 

 accompanied me soon busied themselves in cutting off 

 long strips of the flesh, which they greedily devoured raw 

 with the warmth of life still in it. 



The Black Rhinoceroses such as I encountered confine 

 themselves to the thick bush country. The one I killed 

 was a huge brute about 5 ft. 3^ ins. in height, and 11 ft. 

 10 ins. length over all. Its weight I would guess to be 

 3 _ 3s tons. I left its horns to the villagers : the body was 

 a mass of sores, but this condition is peculiar, I believe, 

 to the wet season. 



The apparent colour of rhinos and elephants depends 

 largely on the soil of the country, for their natural coats 

 become caked with mud from the water holes in which 

 they love to wallow. The rhino has a very restricted 

 range of vision. 



Next morning I returned to the camp at Farbra. The 

 villagers went out to the scene of the kill en masse, and 

 returned in the evening loaded with meat for a feast. 

 I noticed that by way of preparation they covered their 

 stomachs with fat, with the idea of imparting the necessary 

 elasticity to the " little Mary," a custom which seems 

 to be practised by most of the Central African people. 

 My boys ate till their eyelids drooped. 



Not many miles from here I found some exceptionally 

 fine samples of alluvial gold. In almost every river and 

 stream of the North-East Congo — I have seen it in the 

 Nile — there is a kind of shale which the inexperienced 

 is likely to mistake for the precious metal. 



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