170 ON SAFARI 



At the same moment I saw there was another pair, both 

 big brutes, crashing through the thicker bush on our 

 left, some thirty yards away, while beyond them was 

 yet another rhino on the inner sloj^e of the conch 

 aforesaid. This last, however, displayed a totally 

 different demeanour. He was either overwhelmed with 

 rage or convulsed by some violent emotion ; for he ran 

 hither and thither, rearing up forward, snorting and 

 grunting, and presently reached the sky-line, where he 

 presented a picture of fury spoiling for a fight, wheeling- 

 round in every direction and with his stump of a tail 

 stuck vertically upright. 



Meanwhile, I had necessarily kept an eye on the 

 first pair, lest after jDassing us so near they should have 

 got our wind ; but after a single halt about a hundred 

 yards away, to my infinite relief, they held their course 

 along the valley. 



Salim at this point called my attention to yet 

 another rhino — the sixth — standing quite motionless in 

 full outline on the ridge ahead, but further away, say 

 200 yards. 



Concludino- that the enrag-ed rhino on the ridg-e to 

 our left must be the wounded animal, we proceeded 

 with due caution in his direction — so soon, that is, as 

 the second pair, which had passed between us and him, 

 had got sufficiently far to leeward to leave us a safe 

 road. AVe had already arrived within sixty yards or so 

 — rather too far to make sure, as the beast still kept 

 constantly on the move, snorting, rearing and wheeling 

 — when we lost sight, and hurrying to the crest the 

 rhino was nowhere in view : nor was there blood on the 

 spoor. That, however, with pachyderms, is not con- 

 clusive. An ordinary body-wound is rapidly closed by 

 their solid hides, and no blood is given. Of course, 

 should the lungs be injured, the animal bleeds from the 

 mouth. 



To make perfectly certain that a rhino had not 

 fallen dead to the shot, we returned to the original spot, 

 but found nothing there. We then put in another hour 



