322 AFRICA SPEAKS 



The wounded buffalo ran over the brow of a small 

 hill, with Jones following behind. As he neared the 

 crest of the hummock, an ugly black snout appeared, 

 and he raised his rifle to fire, thinking it to be the 

 buffalo. He discovered his mistake just in time to 

 save shooting a big black rhino bull who had heard 

 him coming and was anxious to greet whatever came 

 over the hill. Back tracking to windward of this 

 beast, he gained a point of vantage and found that 

 Mr. Rhino was guarding a female and a small calf. 

 Here was a whole family of black rhinoceroses in a 

 country supposed to be inhabited solely by the white 

 representative of the species! 



This is a wild and out-of-the-way country very sel- 

 dom visited by white men, a district where primitive 

 man still fives as he has for untold centuries, for 

 the fittle contact he has had with the white race 

 has changed him but sfightly, and his ways of fiving 

 not at aU. 



There is a young Scotchman who gets about this dis- 

 trict in the interests of a large trading company, and 

 as he happened along during our stay we had him for 

 dinner one evening. He told us of an experience he 

 had been through during the construction of his bunga- 

 low. The doors had not yet been hung, although other- 

 wise the place was finished. He was sleeping in the 

 bedroom and at his feet slept his only companion, 

 a smafi dog. During the night he heard a sfight 

 noise and wakened just in time to catch a gfimpse of 

 a leopard as it bolted through the doorway with his 

 dog in its mouth. 



Leopards are bloodthirsty brutes anywhere, but 

 seem to be very bad about here. I was shown a leopard 



