With Flashlight and Rifle -* 



opportunities of observing the rhinoceroses, not only in 

 the wooded parts of this plateau, but also out on the 

 open plains, where they were to be seen both singly and 

 in herds. About this time my repeating rifle began to 

 get out of order. Nothing is more calculated to make 

 a man lose his nerve than his weapon's becoming useless 

 at a critical moment, when his very life depends upon 

 it. I was therefore much excited one day when I sighted 

 a pair of sleeping rhinoceroses out on the bare open 

 velt. In this instance I was lucky enough to kill one 

 of the animals at the distance of a hundred yards after 

 an hour's approach to it on all fours in the broiling sun. 

 The second took to flight. Becoming gradually used to 

 their ways, I was fortunate also in subsequent encounters 

 with them. 



I may here relate a few episodes from my own ex- 

 perience illustrating the habits of the rhinoceros. They will 

 serve to give the reader a true picture of his character. I 

 shall never forget the day I brought clown a very old bull 

 rhinoceros in British East Africa, not far from Kibwezi. 

 It was a very windy morning, and I had just killed a male 

 G Hint's gazelle with only one large horn I had missed it 

 with my first shot. Just as I had done for it I happened 

 to look over the plain to the left, and observed a great 

 black mass about two hundred yards away. I thought 

 at first it was the stump of a tree, but looking again a 

 few minutes later I found that it had vanished. My 

 field-classes brought home to me the fact that it was a 



O _"> 



rhinoceros, for there he was sitting in the animal's favourite 

 position, but now farther away. The very strong wind 



222 



