"WITH FLASH-LIGHT AND RIFLE 



more successful than many a slow-witted tribe belong- 

 ing to the human race. We must take into considera- 

 tion the fact that many animals possess an exception- 

 ally keen sense - perception — yea, perhaps, organs of 

 sense unknown to us. 



I have often been asked whether I could explain the 

 fact that the rhinoceros invariably knows the location 

 of every water-pool in its home region; that it carries, 

 so to speak, a topographical chart of the native steppe 

 in its head. I cannot explain this otherwise than by 

 assuming that the rhinoceros possesses an almost mi- 

 raculously keen sense of locality, developed by long 

 practice, transmitted to successive generations, and 

 further developed by each in turn. I have often fol- 

 lowed rhinoceros tracks which led in a straight line to 

 a place giving every indication of a little dried-up pool, 

 but which at length turned at right angles, and brought 

 me, after a few more hours, to a small body of water. 

 Man, with all his knowledge, will die of thirst, where a 

 rhinoceros will be saved by its instinct, which, after 

 all, is in this case accumulated experience. 



Many other animals have been to me, in far-away 

 Africa, like comrades, in joy and in sorrow. Among 

 them I count a young elephant which I lost, and a 

 couple of tamed baboons, who were almost beside them- 

 selves with joy whenever they espied me at a distance 

 that no human eye could reach. 



Among the African birds I found the marabous, the 



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