43 BIG GAM/-: SJIOOT/.\\; 



the shooting a rhinoceros was a matter of supreme indifference 

 to me in those days, and walked to my own waggon. 



Next morning at breakfast my friend offered to show me 

 where the rhinoceroses lived. 1 was quite meek now, and 

 ready to be introduced to this entirely imaginary locality. At 

 that time we had not to go far to find, and had hardly left the 

 camp a quarter of an hour, when the leading Kafir pointed 

 out a great ugly beast rubbing itself against a tree eighty yards 

 from us. I was off my pony in a second, determined to get 

 to close quarters as soon as, and if possible sooner than, my 

 companion. We both stalked to within twenty yards without 

 being seen, and knelt down, I with the stump of a small tree 

 before me ; we fired together, and while the smoke still hung, 

 I was aware of an angry and exceedingly plain-looking beast 

 making straight at me through it. Luckily he had to come 

 rather uphill to my stump, and his head was a little thrown 

 back, when, within five feet of the muzzle of my gun, he fell, 

 with a shot up his nostril, the powder blackening his already 

 dingy face. This was a borili (or sour-tempered one) ; as a 

 rule, the only really troublesome fellow of his family. I 

 remember thinking my first introduction promised a stormy 

 acquaintance, and hoping there might be gentler specimens, 

 who rather liked being shot, or at all events did not resent it so 

 violently. I got two or three times into serious trouble with 

 these lumbering creatures ; but the stories shall be told as 

 they crop up. I may mention here, however, that success in 

 rhinoceros shooting depends very greatly upon the sportsman's 

 kneeling or squatting. I lost many at first by firing from 

 a standing position. The consequence was, that the ball only 

 penetrated one lung, and with the other untouched the beast 

 runs on for miles, unless, of course, the heart happen to be 

 pierced ; whereas, fired from a low r er level, the ball passes 

 through both lungs, and brings him up in 100 or 200 yards. 

 A rhinoceros very seldom drops to the shot. Of all I killed, 

 but two fell dead in their tracks. Exclusive of the Quebaaba 

 (R. Oswellit\ which was probably a variety of the mahoho, 



