CHAPTER II. 



KHINOCEROS SHOOTING (ASIATIC). 



IT is a current belief, that the skin of a rhinoceros 

 will resist an ordinary bullet that it is all but 

 impervious. This is nonsense. A spherical ball out of 

 a 12 smooth bore, driven by five drachms of black 

 powder, if rightly placed, will kill a rhinoceros far 

 easier than it would a buffalo ; for though the skin 

 is very thick, it is easily penetrated. I have seen a 

 man of ordinary strength drive a " shikar " knife up to 

 the hilt behind the shoulder of a prostrate rhinoceros. 

 But still it is better to use heavy weapons, with large 

 charges and hardened bullets ; not on account of the 

 denseness of the cuticle, but because the missile has to 

 pass through an immense quantity of flesh, well 

 covered with muscle, before it can reach a vital part. 

 Jerdon (the naturalist) recommends steel- tipped bullets 

 and shells. The former are of course very well adapted 

 for slaying all pachyderms, but the latter are simply 

 useless. I tried many kinds, notably Forsyth's, but 

 I never succeeded in killing a rhinoceros with one, 

 though I fired with them at over thirty. I found the 

 belted bullets from my two grooved rifles hardened 

 with a mixture of quicksilver, very deadly. Shooting 



