98 After Big Game in Central Africa 



the pursuit is stopped, near a pool of rain-water, and 

 we decide to continue our search at dawn next day. 

 The night is passed with the small comfort which can 

 be obtained from a saucepan, a blanket, and a handful 

 of rice, things which are inseparable from long elephant 

 hunts. And, as there are no lions to be feared, and 

 it is late when we abandon the pursuit, we simply 

 lie down under a tree in the midst of the bush, after 

 lighting fires, which we keep up all night. That is 

 the usual way of resting in these regions when on 

 a journey : encampments with stockades are only 

 established in dangerous countries where an attack is 

 feared, if wild animals are to be dreaded, or if one 

 is going to make a stay sufficiently long to merit the 

 trouble of pitching it that is, four or five days at 

 the least. 



Dawn next day found us on the track of the 

 rhinoceros, and it was not until about nine o'clock 

 in the morning that we discovered its body on the 

 edge of a pool. It must have died on the previous 

 evening almost at the time we were obliged to 

 stop. Its horns were worn out, and its size was 

 ordinary : so, considering the labour it had cost 

 me, I was only half satisfied with my conquest. 

 Ehinoceros in the full force of their strength have 

 horns in perfect state because they grow quicker 

 than they wear away ; but when old age begins,, 

 the growth of the horns appears to stop, and they 

 grow shorter and shorter with time. I have killed 

 a very big old female rhinoceros whose horns 

 were completely worn out and only a few inches- 



