CHAP. ii. RHINOCEROS. 123 



we were, came thundering down straight at us, barely 

 giving me time to follow the native's example and spring 

 into a small tree, on either side of which they passed, 

 enabling me from my elevated position to see where both 

 balls had taken effect. The first had broken the fore-leg 

 below the knee, while a white spot behind the shoulder 

 marked the second, and I should undoubtedly have got 

 the former, had I not allowed myself to be dissuaded from 

 following them, as the great weight of a rhinoceros in- 

 capacitates it from travelling far on three legs, and a 

 broken limb may always be accounted a fatal wound. 

 The ball of the foot is also an extremely tender spot, and 

 I remember seeing one that had already gone four or five 

 miles with a bullet through the lungs completely disabled 

 by a chance shot hitting it in the former place, making it 

 squeal with pain, and stand on three legs, holding up the 

 other, unable to place it to the ground. 



Some time after this I was returning to camp one 

 evening with fifteen hunters after having been engaged 

 aU day with a troop of buffalo that had taken refuge in 

 the reeds. We were marching in native fashion, my gun- 

 bearer leading, myself next, and the hunters and two or 

 three water-bearers following us in Indian file, when four 

 rhinoceroses made their appearance about two hundred 

 yards off, trotting towards us along the very path that we 

 were on. Of course, from the way we were walking, only 

 two or three of the foremost could see them, but that did not 

 prevent the others following our example as we sprang to 

 leeward of the path, and lay down in the long grass. The 

 great brutes trotted on, perfectly unsuspicious, and, with 

 their usual blindness, taking no notice of the line of black 



