RESULT OF PLAYING WITH EDGE-TOOLS. 117 



had been seized by a lion ; and though we should have 

 considered the jaws of either highly objectionable, they 

 seemed to think very little of the mechanical ones, and 

 after witnessing the performance of plastering and ban- 

 daging, they quietly resumed their occupations. The 

 trap caught his hand right across the centre, and though 

 the flesh on both sides is much lacerated, there is no 

 evidence of any bones being crushed, which is aston- 

 ishing, for from the great strength of this trap, requiring 

 two men to set it, one would have expected that the 

 hand would have been completely severed by it. 



Nothing important killed to-day. Coke tracked his 

 wounded rhinoceros for several miles, and at last caught 

 sight of him amongst some thick bushes. For a moment 

 it turned as if to charge, but again went on its way un- 

 checked by another ball from the ten-bore, which Coke 

 does not think penetrated his thick hide. Vivian saw a 

 lion, but could not get a shot at it. 



Feb. 5. An unlucky day for Vivian and Coke, for 

 both were on separate rhinoceros tracks converging to the 

 same wood, and, by singular ill-luck, as Coke had a close 

 shot at his animal Vivian was drawing so near to his 

 own that the report made it start off and only gave him 

 a hurried shot, and neither were successful. Shooting 

 in these closely- packed mimosa-woods, though the 

 branches are dry and leafless, is very unsatisfactory, as 

 the probabilities are great that a ball will be stopped or 



