Rhinoceros Shooting. 75 



got a ball behind the ear a chance shot I fear and 

 dropped, two others were wounded and charged 

 straight at us. We were about fifteen yards apart. 

 My ant nest was a good six or eight feet high. I was 

 on its summit in a moment and gave each beast a 

 shot as he passed. They ran all abroad. One fell 

 an awful cropper into a mudhole, sending a deluge 

 of water into the air, and falling almost on the top 

 of a huge male buffalo, who, disturbed by our shots, 

 was scrambling on to his legs and endeavouring to 

 get out of his bath. The rhinoceros must have been 

 mad with rage, for he gave the buffalo a gash across 

 the thigh, and that beast resented it by giving its 

 assailant a right and left with his horns on either 

 side of the neck close to the jowl. A right royal 

 fight then took place. The two were well matched and 

 almost of a size. The thick-skinned animal endeav- 

 oured to close and rip, but the other used his horns 

 as skilfully as a prizefighter would his fists, and 

 showered blows upon the face, head, and neck of his 

 adversary. Wherever he was attacked there were his 

 long, powerful horns ready to interpose. We were 

 hurrying to the scene, when the buffalo made a de- 

 sperate attack, fell into the mudhole, and before he 

 could recover himself the pachyderm ripped open the 

 whole of his stomach as cleanly as if it had been done 

 with a knife. The next moment we fired and the rhino- 

 ceros fell dead upon his foe, all but burying him in the 

 slimy depths of the mudhole. A bullet through the 

 head put the poor bovine out of misery. This 

 was a grand exhibition and seldom witnessed, there- 

 fore I mark it with a red letter in the calendar of my 

 memory. We reached home very late, and doubt if 



