32 IN MALAY FORESTS. 



he charged headlong towards us, passing within fifteen 

 or twenty yards of our position. The sound of sap- 

 lings crashing and breaking, and creepers rending and 

 snapping, filled the place and testified to the enor- 

 mous bulk and power of the animal. When he had 

 gone fifty yards behind us, he stopped. Here he 

 paused a few seconds, and then with a snort charged 

 back again at an acute angle to the last direction he 

 had taken. He again passed close enough for us to 

 catch a glimpse of him and to see the bushes moving, 

 but not close enough for one to aim with any certainty. 

 Again he stopped, paused, and then with a snort came 

 back on another line that passed us no nearer than 

 the others. What his intention was I cannot say; 

 whether it was that he could not discover our exact 

 position, or whether his wounds had knocked the 

 inclination for real fighting out of him, I do not 

 know ; but I am inclined to believe that he did not 

 want to fight, and think that it was what tacticians 

 term a demonstration. He made five such rushes, 

 but no time did he come close enough for me to take 

 more than a snap - shot, and this, thinking that I 

 should require my cartridges for close quarters, I 

 refused to risk. 



At last, however, Malias pointed out a stationary 

 black object some twenty-five or thirty yards away. 

 I could see that it was the rhinoceros, but could not 

 make out what part of him it was. Nevertheless, 

 thinking that I might not get a better opportunity, 

 I fired ; in another wild charge he rushed headlong 

 through the forest straight away from us, bursting 

 or tearing a path through every obstacle. Again we 



