CHAP. ii. RHINOCEROS. 133 



any damage, and less of coming out alive ; so I climbed 

 up the tree myself, hoping to be able to have a shot from 

 there. I, however, found I could not, as only one was in 

 sight, and it was in such a position that I could not 

 depend on wounding it seriously. Breaking off, therefore, 

 a dead branch, I threw it in, and in a few minutes they 

 walked out on the opposite side, going slowly, and look- 

 ing about uneasily to see whether the noise portended 

 danger. I can still see the picture in which they formed 

 a part. A great sea of reeds rustling and waving with 

 every passing air, dotted with a few old trees, naked and 

 dead, stretching out their white branches above them, 

 and edged for the most part with dense evergreen bushes. 

 Far away an immense flat, unbounded as far as the eye 

 could reach, and covered with masses of dark jungle 

 alternating with patches of the white sun-dried grass 

 between, and here and there glimpses of a lagoon, half 

 buried in reeds. Complete stillness, and no signs of life, 

 except the two rhinoceroses as they walked quietly away, 

 and two solitary human beings watching them. 



In a few minutes more they were concealed by the 

 intervening bushes, and I came down, and crossing over, 

 took up their spoor and tried to follow it ; finding great 

 difficulty, however, in doing so, as their foot, being very 

 small, hardly, indeed, larger than that of a buffalo bull, 

 and very soft, leaves no impression but that made by the 

 three toes, and on ground as hard and dry as it is in 

 winter in Africa, even that is very slight. Few people 

 would believe the fact that, except during the wet season, 

 it is far easi'er to track a buffalo than an elephant or 

 rhinoceros, despite their great weight and size ; the mark 



