With Flashlight ami Kitlo * 



discipline evinced my strict orders that not a shot should 

 ho tiivd hy an\ of thorn at night tiino undor such critical 

 conditions being strictly obeyed. There was a brief pause, 

 tho rhinoceros still keeping absolutely oaiiot. At tho 

 moment I decided that 1 had hotter act first, and I aimed 

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

 \vhiskcd round with an angrv snort and disappeared 

 among the thorn -bushes, stamping and spluttering as he 

 made his wax into tho open. Next morning we attempted 

 his pursuit, but this proved ejuito impossible in the dense 

 jungle. 



1 h.ul a very similar experience on the banks of 

 the Rufu River. A rhinoceros made his appearance in 

 tho middle ot the camp, and tho watch did not venture 

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

 before I know much about the rhinoceros, there had 

 been an episode ot tho same kind. Init m this case 

 tho t\\o animals 1 had to encounter did not come right 

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

 immediate neighbourhood, and the moon at tho time was 

 shining brightly. It \\as a bitterly cold night ; there 

 \\as no gelling warm, oven with layers of woollen coverings 

 on one. 1 \\as awakened, and sprang from my camp-hod, 

 clad onl\ in mv shirt and a pair of spectacles, to got a 

 look at our visitors and see whether 1 could shoot them. 

 But in tho meantime the\ had sauntered away, and in 

 m\ scanix garb I followed them, with the man on watch, 

 tor about t\\o hundred paces, to no purpose. 



Manx other encounters with rhinoceroses went oft 



