chap. ii. RHINOCEROS. 77 



I rather over-slept myself next morning, for the sun 

 was just rising when I awoke, and I found that the two 

 hunters had started a few minutes previously on the spoor 

 of the rhinoceros. It was not difficult to follow them, as 

 the heavy dew on the long grass showed very plainly 

 where they had passed ; and as I could do so at a run, 

 while they had to slowly pick out the toe-marks of the 

 animal, which, despite its great size, makes but a faint 

 spoor on the hard ground, and as the dew had since fallen, 

 rendering it all the more difficult to do so, it was not long 

 before I overtook them. The beast was not bleeding, 

 as indeed we had not expected, the thick indiarubber- 

 like skin closing so quickly over a wound as to make 

 bleeding, except in rare instances, next to impossible ; 

 but it was unsteady in its gait, and in more than one 

 place the marks on the ground showed that it had come 

 to its knees. We therefore fancied it could not go far, 

 and hunted with the greatest caution through the thickets 

 into which it had entered, even though the general opinion 

 was that we should find it dead. 



We passed several places where it had stood under the 

 trees, and at last we came to where it had lain down, and 

 where we could see that it had passed the night, and had 

 not left until daybreak. The spoor was now easy to 

 follow ; indeed, it was not necessary to look at it much, 

 for once assured we were following the right animal, the 

 broad trail of where it had brushed the dew off enabled us 

 to go after it as fast as we liked. There was no question 

 either of whether we should find it alive or not, as, facing 

 the open, it had gone straight across, a distance of some 

 two miles, heading for a line of thick bushes that bordered 



