322 THE LAND OF THE LION 
angles, ran some twenty or thirty yards, and fell with a 
sharp squeaking cry, quite dead. After these two, I was 
far more anxious to get a photograph of rhino than to 
shoot them and spent much time and ran some risk, in 
unavailing efforts. ‘The bush was too thick, the light too 
bad, or the rhino stamped and snorted so when I got 
nearly within photographing distance (you cannot do 
much with a kodak at more than fifteen yards) that I had 
to keep handing my camera to my nervous gunbearer 
and grasping my rifle. 
In this way I find I have approached close to more 
than fifty and never had actual trouble with any of them 
till a few days ago. 
Now, the danger of the rhino is twofold. In the first 
place, you are apt to stumble on him most unexpectedly. 
He makes very little noise when he feeds, and moves his 
unwieldy body with unaccountably little crackling of 
bush, even in places where you find it impossible to walk 
noiselessly. I have often stood silently and watched him 
feeding amid thorns that were dry and brittle, and over 
ground thickly covered with fallen twigs. He would go 
about his business with a silence that was almost uncanny— 
Listen as I would, scarcely a sound betrayed him, yet 
there he was before my eyes, not forty yards away. 
In the second place, if you do surprise him at close 
quarters, it is impossible to say what he may do. He may 
snort and rush away, or he may rush away as though 
escape was his one aim and object, and as suddenly turn 
right around and charge over men and baggage, carrying 
ruin and consternation in his train; or he may charge head 
on without one instant’s hesitation. The smell of many 
animals distinctly indicates their near presence. A herd 
of wapiti or kongoni can be smelt at several hundred 
yards distance in still warm weather. A band of lions are 
unmistakable when you get close to them in the long grass. 
