In Wildest Africa ^ 



other shrubs, and then again rub their rough hide or their 

 horns against the strong trunk of a tree or on a block of 

 stone. They have all this time been coming gradually 

 nearer to the herd of gnus that we first noticed, and now 

 at last they stand quietly on the level ground, only a 

 hundred paces away from the old gnu-bulls which are 

 acting as sentinels. 



And now it is I myself who am the first to make out 

 with the glass a third rhinoceros. " Wapi, bwana ? " my 

 companion eagerly asks me, and as I point out to him the 

 place on the velt where I have picked the animal out, 

 he approvingly confirms my observation with the remark : 

 '' Ndio, bwana, pharu mkubwa sana " (''Yes, master, a 

 very big rhinoceros!") 



After some time we see that it is an old and unusually 

 large bull ; he, too, has gradually taken the same 

 line as his two colleagues. Our observation proves to 

 be correct, and we also remark before long that the 

 first pair of rhinoceroses we had noticed is made up of 

 an old cow and her nearly grown up young one. 



More herds of zebras and gnus, and small troops of 

 Grant's gazelles and of impallah-antelopes have come 

 into sight, and now they are joined by a whole crowd 

 of hartebeests, which so far have kept themselves hidden 

 in a side valley of the velt full of thick tall grass. 



And now the moving mass of animal life is ever more 

 abundant, more varied. I notice in the valley at the foot 

 of my hill a string of guinea-fowl ; how they hurry and 

 scurry about, flutter up with sounding strokes of their 

 wings, and then soon drop down again ! And now my 



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