JUJA FARM; HIPPO AND LEOPARD 141 



order to prevent mischief. Under such circumstances it is 

 not to be expected that men will take too many chances 

 when face to face with a creature whose actions are threat- 

 ening and whose intentions it is absolutely impossible to 

 divine. In fact, I do not see how the rhinoceros can be per- 

 manently preserved, save in very out-of-the-way places or 

 in regular game reserves. There is enough interest and ex- 

 citement in the pursuit to attract every eager young hunter, 

 and, indeed, very many eager old hunters; and the beast's 

 stupidity, curiosity, and truculence make up a combination 

 of qualities which inevitably tend to insure its destruction. 



As we brought home the whole body of this rhinoceros, 

 and as I had put into it eight bullets, five from the Win- 

 chester and three from the Holland, I was able to make 

 a tolerably fair comparison between the two. With the 

 full-jacketed bullets of the Winchester I had mortally 

 wounded the animal; it would have died in a short time, 

 and it was groggy when it came out of the brush in its 

 final charge; but they inflicted no such smashing blow as 

 the heavy bullets of the Holland. Moreover, when they 

 struck the heavy bones they tended to break into frag- 

 ments, while the big Holland bullets ploughed through. 

 The Winchester and the Springfield were the weapons 

 one of which I always carried in my own hand, and for 

 any ordinary game I much preferred them to any other 

 rifles. The Winchester did admirably with lions, giraffes, 

 elands, and smaller game, and, as will be seen, with hippos. 

 For heavy game like rhinoceroses and buffaloes, I found 

 that for me personally the heavy Holland was unquestion- 

 ably the proper weapon. But in writing this I wish most 

 distinctly to assert my full knowledge of the fact that the 

 choice of a rifle is almost as much a matter of personal 

 idiosyncrasy as the choice of a friend. The above must 

 be taken as merely the expression of my personal pref- 

 erences. It will doubtless arouse as much objection among 

 the ultra-champions of one type of gun as among the ultra- 

 champions of another. The truth is that any good modern 



