With Flashlight and Rifle * 



discipline evinced my strict orders that not a shot should 

 be fired by any of them at night time under such critical 

 conditions being strictly obeyed. There was a brief pause, 

 the rhinoceros still keeping absolutely quiet. At the 

 moment I decided that I had better act first, and I aimed 

 a bullet at his shoulder. As the shot rang out the animal 

 whisked round with an angry snort and disappeared 

 among the thorn-bushes, stamping and spluttering as he 

 made his way into the open. Next morning we attempted 

 his pursuit, but this proved quite impossible in the dense 

 jungle. 



I had a very similar experience on the banks of 

 the Rufu River. A rhinoceros made his appearance in 

 the middle of the camp, and the watch did not venture 

 to fire at him. And on my first African expedition, 

 before I knew much about the rhinoceros, there had 

 been an episode of the same kind. But in this case 

 the two animals I had to encounter did not come right 

 into the camp in the dark ; they appeared only in the 

 immediate neighbourhood, and the moon at the time was 

 shining brightly. It was a bitterly cold night ; there 

 was no getting warm, even with layers of woollen coverings 

 on one. I was awakened, and sprang from my camp-bed, 

 clad only in my shirt and a pair of spectacles, to get a 

 look at our visitors and see whether I could shoot them. 

 But in the meantime they had sauntered away, and in 

 my scanty garb I followed them, with the man on watch, 

 for about two hundred paces, to no purpose. 



Many other encounters with rhinoceroses went off* 



242 



