Rhinoceros-Hunting 69 



is necessary not only to have weapons, but also to 

 track and to possess special knowledge, to capture and 

 to know animals. There is hardly one hunter in each 

 village ; thus, out of the thirty bearers I have in 



O ' / 



camp, only four are capable of following a track. 

 However, hunters or not, all love the life which 

 we live here. 



The end of March conies without noteworthy 

 incident, but April is fairly eventful. We spend 

 the morning of the 6th in following two rhinoceros 

 which have made many peregrinations in the tall 

 grass during the night. Pursuit of them is very 

 tiring, as we cannot see four yards before us ; and we 

 never know at what moment we are to meet these 

 savage animals. 



We arrive very near our goal without having been 

 charged, in spite of the almost continual shifting of 

 the wind ; but it does not follow that we shall finish 

 our day thus, for, in the very middle of a dense 

 thicket, we hear, a few yards off', a snorting and then a 

 snifting which we know well. In the midst of broken 

 branches, overturned shrubs, and trampled grass, 

 appears a huge mass which charges in our direction 

 with the speed of a locomotive. We have only time to 

 jump on one side. The animal passes, but so quickly 

 that I cannot take aim, being hindered from doing 

 so by a tree. It disappears in the grass. But in a 

 few seconds we hear it returning on its steps, again 

 seeking for that vitiated air, that smell of the enemy 

 which has provoked its anger. It snorts and searches, 

 turns and turns again like a gigantic pointer, with this 



