THE RHINOCEROS 



tree. When I looked again it had disappeared. Using 

 my field -glass, I realized that the dark object was a rhi- 

 noceros which I had first seen in a sitting posture, and 

 which now had stretched itself out on the ground. I 

 carefully stole up to within fifty feet of the animal, 

 against the wind, and fired from behind a small thorn- 

 bush, aiming at the ear. The startled bull made a 

 sudden dash in my direction, but turned about before 

 reaching me. Hit by a second bullet, he went down 

 like a hare in a cross-fire. 



A few years later I wounded an unusually large, old 

 bull. He first fled, but came back towards me, de- 

 scribing a wide curve — tactics often employed by these 

 animals. Although I hit him several times, he col- 

 lapsed only thirty feet from me. The bull had been 

 in the company of a cow. When I fired the first shot 

 the animals butted their heads against each other, the 

 bull, no doubt, thinking that his mate had hurt him. 



I had another unexpected encounter with a rhinoc- 

 eros when I was hunting the koodoo, not far from Jipe 

 Lake. The anim^al, which suddenly appeared not far- 

 ther than twenty-five paces from me, was plastered all 

 over with mud and reddish dust. It had, no doubt, 

 taken a bath in a muddy pool and rolled around on 

 the dusty ground. A strange apparition in the light of 

 the setting sun ! I felt instinctively that the rhinoceros 

 meant to charge me. It moved its heavy head to and 

 fro three times to scent my whereabouts, and started 



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