176 WILD SPORTS OF BURMA AND ASSAM 



very hard and rocky. After covering some three miles of 

 precipitous but fairly open and rocky country, I felt tempted 

 to give it up in disgust, > as we had not as yet come upon 

 tracks which were only an hour or two old. Patience is 

 however usually rewarded in the end, and after many twist- 

 ings and turnings, backwards and forwards, up-hill and down 

 dale, often going over the same ground twice, we came on 

 fresh tracks, and were suddenly startled by hearing in our 

 immediate neighbourhood the peculiar low, muffled humming 

 sound repeated at intervals ; and Moung Hpe at once re- 

 cognized them as proceeding from the rhinos. To walk 

 noiselessly down the ridge in the direction of the sound was 

 the work of a few moments, but I was afraid our camp- 

 followers would catch us up before we could get sight of 

 the animals. Fortunately, however, they had all seated them- 

 selves on the ground for a rest. The peculiar low, buzzing 

 or humming noises now became more distinct, and as we 

 rounded a rocky ridge which overlooked a shallow ravine, 

 wooded with bamboo and an undergrowth of bush and 

 prickly cane, a large mud-wallow, in a small clearing border- 

 ing the cane-jungle, came into view, and in this two rhinos 

 were disporting themselves. One animal, the larger of the 

 two, was standing half in and half out of the slushy mud ; 

 the other was lying in it half submerged, rolling about from 

 side to side, and uttering the peculiar noises which had 

 attracted our attention. Telling Moung Hpe to fire at the 

 animal standing on the brink of the wallow, I aimed at the 

 other, and fired both barrels. Moung Hpe's shot rang out 

 simultaneously with my own. There was a terrific commotion 

 for a second or two in the wallow, accompanied by unearthly 

 grunts and screeches, something like the bray of a donkey, 

 and then both animals bolted away in different directions 

 through the cane. 



We rushed down and examined the ground and bushes 

 in the neighbourhood of the wallow for blood, several big 

 splashes of which we discovered on the line of flight taken 

 by the rhino which I had fired at. We took on this animal's 

 tracks immediately, and had not gone very far before I 

 caught sight of the beast, limping along with a broken 



