In Wildest Africa -^ ■ 



Suddenly, at last, the entire aspect of the velt 

 undergoes a change, and we have got into a stretch of 

 country which has had a monopoly of the downfall. It 

 is cut off quite perceptibly from the parched districts all 

 around, and its fresh green aspect is refreshing and soothing 

 to the eye. On and on we march for hour after hour, 

 the wealth of animal life increasing as we go. Early this 

 morning I had noted two rhinoceroses bowling along over 

 the velt. They had had a bath and were gleaming and 

 glistening in the sun. 



Now we descry a huge something, motionless upon the 

 velt, looking at first like the stump of a massive tree 

 or like a squat ant-hill, but turning out on closer investiga- 

 tion to be a rhinoceros. It may seem strange that one 

 can make any mistake even at one's first sight of the 

 animal, but every one who has gone after rhinoceroses 

 much must have had the same astonishing or alarming 

 experience. 



In this case we have to deal with an unusually large 

 specimen — a bull. It seems to be asleep. My sporting 

 instincts are aroused. My men halt and crouch down 

 upon the ground. I hold a brief colloquy with Orgeich. 

 He also gets to the rear. I advance towards the rhinoceros 

 over the broken ground between us — the wind favouring 

 me, and a few parched-looking bushes serving me as cover. 

 I get nearer and nearer — now I am only a hundred and fifty 

 paces off, now only a hundred. The great beast makes 

 no stir — it seems in truth to be asleep. Now I have got 

 within eighty paces, now sixty. Between me and my 

 adversary there is nothing but three-foot-high parched 



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