174 EXPEDITION INTO [Chap. XX. 



Late in the afternoon we halted on the banks of 

 the Simalakate, a deep and tranquil stream, mar- 

 gined by reeds and rushes, affording a ready covert 

 for lions, whose fresh marks were every where visible 

 in the neighbourhood. The day had been very 

 sultry, and our two dogs, nearly blind from thirst, 

 ran down the steep bank to the water's edge, into 

 the jaws of an enormous alligator. One of them 

 returned immediately in a state of great alarm. 

 Suddenly a splash was heard, and bubbles of blood 

 rising a minute after, too truly told what had been 

 the fate of his unfortunate comrade. Not content 

 with depriving us of our valued four-footed com- 

 panion, the alligators quilted their watery homes 

 during the night, and ate up a portion of the leather 

 of the waggon furniture, besides the shoes of our 

 followers. These scaly monsters are very common 

 in many of the African rivers, and this was not 

 the only occasion on which we suffered froni their 

 ravages. We frequently killed some of an immense 

 size. 



About sunset an unwieldy white rhinoceros ap- 

 proached the waggons, evidently with hostile in- 

 tentions. There being neither bush nor hollow to 

 conceal my advance, I crawled towards him amongst 

 the grass, and within forty yards fired two balls 

 into him. He started, looked around for some 

 object on which to wreak his vengeance, and actually 

 charged up, with his eye flashing fire and gore 

 streaming from his mouth, to within an arm's length 

 of me. Crouching low, however, I fortunately 



