-*> Rhinoceroses 



it is most difficult for men to make their way, such as 

 jessamine, smilax, pterolobium, toddalia, and blackberry 

 bushes. In dry weather these regions provide for all 

 the wants of both the elephant and the rhinoceros, 

 and they keep to them for the most part. They render 

 all incursion into these strongholds of theirs a very 

 perilous undertaking. 



However, if the wind tells them of our approach, or 

 if we make the slightest noise, they generally either clatter 

 away from us down-hill, or else they remain absolutely 

 still and motionless in their basin-like haunts, which we 

 come upon every hundred yards or so. If the wind be 

 favourable, we may reckon upon encountering them at 

 short range and under risky conditions, especially if we 

 meet several of them together. Even the Wandorobo 

 and \Vakamba are not keen about venturing into these 

 rhinoceros-strongholds, and I must admit that, after several 

 exciting experiences in such regions, I have no great 

 desire to make my way into them again. This is not, 

 indeed, the place for the hunter who relies entirely upon 

 his own gun, as I always did, and who has not a body- 

 guard of natives around him ready to blaze away when 

 necessary. In these circumstances, too, you have to shoot 

 anything in the shape of a rhinoceros you see, old or 

 young, male or female, if you care about your own safety. 

 And this is not a pleasant kind of sport. But evem 

 when you allow your men to shoot in these pathless 

 thickets in which you have to grope forward one by one, 

 unable to see where you are going there is apt to be 

 great danger of their shooting each other. 



