128 LARGE GAME. CHAP. II. 



they will get up and stand, turning round and round, 

 trying to discover what has disturbed them, and you can 

 then aim where you like. 



This, with me, totally depends on the angle at which 

 they are — the upper part of the heart being the mark, — and 

 it is therefore impossible to say more than that the best 

 place is about the shoulder, behind or before, as the case may 

 be. A ball entering the centre of the chest is often imme- 

 diately fatal, and in all front shots there is a fair chance 

 of cutting an important blood-vessel. In the flank, when 

 it is running nearly stern on, and three inches above the 

 tail when it is quite so, are both good marks, but it must 

 always be borne in mind that, with the rhinoceros, as with 

 the African elephant, there is no place that is perfectly 

 certain to prove fatal. I have heard much about a spot 

 in the head, between the ear and eye, or up the nostril, 

 and I even know of two cases — not in Africa, however, 

 but India — where the animal was killed by wounds in 

 that part only ; but in my own experience I have never 

 seen or heard of a single bullet in the head being succes- 

 ful, except to stun, and from the extraordinary thickness 

 of the skull-bones, and the peculiar position and smallness 

 of the brain cavity, I do not see how serious damage could 

 be caused, unless by chance. 



As I have before said, sufficient anecdotes of the 

 ferocity, chronic bad temper, and cunning of R. bicomis 

 might be related of themselves to fill a volume. Their 

 cunning is only equalled by their viciousness. In most, 

 if not in all cases, they will at once charge on getting the 

 wind of a human being, and if they cross his track, they 

 will often follow it up like a dog, making none of the 



