TREKKING THROUGH THE THIRST 197 



among the thorns here and there stood the huge cactus-like 

 euphorbias, shaped like candelabra, groups of tall aloes, 

 and gnarled wild olives of great age, with hoary trunks 

 and twisted branches. Now and then there would be a dry 

 watercourse, with flat-topped acacias bordering it, and 

 perhaps some one pool of thick greenish water. There 

 was game always in view, and about noon we sighted three 

 rhinos, a bull, a cow, and a big calf, nearly a mile ahead of 

 us. We were travelling down wind, and they scented us, 

 but did not charge, making off in a semicircle and halting 

 when abreast of us. We examined them carefully through 

 the glasses. The cow was bigger than the bull, and had 

 fair horns, but nothing extraordinary; and as we were 

 twelve miles from camp, so that Heller would have had to 

 come out for the night if we shot her, we decided to leave 

 her alone. Then our attention was attracted by seeing 

 the game all gazing in one direction, and we made out a 

 hyena; I got a shot at it, at three hundred yards, but missed. 

 Soon afterward we saw another rhino, but on approaching 

 it proved to be about two-thirds grown, with a stubby horn. 

 We did not wish to shoot it, and therefore desired to avoid 

 a charge; and so we passed three or four hundred yards to 

 leeward, trusting to its bad eyesight. Just opposite it, 

 when it was on our right, we saw another hyena on our left, 

 about as far off as the rhino. I decided to take a shot, and 

 run the chance of disturbing the rhino. So I knelt down 

 and aimed with the little Springfield, keeping the Holland 

 by me to be ready for events. I never left camp, on foot or 

 on horseback, for any distance, no matter how short, with- 

 out carrying one of the repeating rifles; and when on a 

 hunt my two gun-bearers carried, one the other magazine 

 rifle, and one the double-barrelled Holland. 



Tarlton, whose eye for distance was good, told me the 

 hyena was over three hundred yards off; it was walking 

 slowly to the left. I put up the three-hundred-yard sight, 

 and drew a rather coarse bead; and down went the hyena 

 with its throat cut; the little sharp-pointed, full-jacketed 



