CHAPTER II. 



RHINOCEROS. 



One day in spring, when although, and perhaps because, 

 we had as yet had no rain, the heat was more over- 

 poweringly great than it was in summer, four of us found 

 ourselves late in the afternoon on the brink of a small water- 

 hole, and in a few seconds afterwards each individual was 

 lying in the deep mud which surrounded the lukewarm 

 and beastly stuff that, though composed of every nastiness 

 under heaven, we dignified with the name of water, and 

 which we were at that particular moment only too glad 

 to get. 



We had left our camp on the Black Umfolosi on the 

 previous morning, and had gone to sleep at a place some 



