200 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



them. His shoulder was sore, and he did not wish to use a 

 rifle, and so was devoting himself to his camera, which 

 one of his men always carried. With this, after the exercise 

 of much patience, he finally managed to take a number of 

 pictures of the giraffe, getting within fifty yards of the bull. 



Nor were the giraffe the only animals that showed a 

 tameness bordering on stupidity. Soon afterward we made 

 out three rhino, a mile away. They were out in the bare 

 plain, alternately grazing and enjoying a noontide rest; 

 the bull by himself, the cow with her calf a quarter of a 

 mile off. There was not a scrap of cover, but we walked 

 up wind to within a hundred and fifty yards of the bull. 

 Even then he did not seem to see us, but the tick-birds, 

 which were clinging to his back and sides, gave the alarm, 

 and he trotted to and fro, uncertain as to the cause of the 

 disturbance. If Heller had not had his hands full with the 

 giraffec I might have shot the bull rhino; but his horn 

 and bulk of body, though fair, were not remarkable, and I 

 did not molest him. He went toward the cow, which left 

 her calf and advanced toward him in distinctly bellicose 

 style; then she recognized him, her calf trotted up, and 

 the three animals stood together, tossing their heads, and 

 evidently trying to make out what was near them. But 

 we were down wind, and they do not see well, with their 

 little twinkling pig's eyes. We were anxious not to be 

 charged by the cow and calf, as her horn was very poor, and 

 it would have been unpleasant to be obliged to shoot her, 

 and so we drew off. 



Next day, when Kermit and I were out alone with our 

 gun-bearers we saw another rhino, a bull, with a stubby, 

 horn. This rhino, like the others of the neighborhood, was 

 enjoying his noonday rest in the open, miles from cover; 

 "Look at him," said Kermit, "standing there in the middle 

 of the African plain, deep in prehistoric thought." Indeed 

 the rhinoceros does seem like a survival from the elder 

 world that has vanished; he was in place in the pliocene; 

 he would not have been out of place in the miocene; but 



