96 SPORT IN ASIA AND AFRICA 



sat down behind one of the trees at the edge of 

 the cover. The rhino was rooting in the ground 

 like a pig, and was standing with his stern inclined 

 towards me, and I decided to try a head shot. 

 Aiming steadily therefore at his throat, between 

 the jaws, I fired. In my ignorance, I thought 

 I was likely to be attacked by one or more of 

 the other rhinos, and resolved to reload the 

 first barrel, immediately after firing, so as to 

 have the two barrels ready for any emergency. 

 The rhino fired at would, I thought, probably 

 stand for a second or two after receiving the 

 shot, and this would give me sufficient time 

 to reload. 



The shot, as I afterwards found, struck the point 

 of the jaw near the throat ; and the bullet, 

 although it was a solid nickel-coated one, went 

 to pieces in the animal's head, and only fragments 

 of it could be found. Some of the fragments, 

 however, caused mortal injury. 



On receiving the shot, the rhino dashed straight 

 at the tree behind which I was sitting, and stood 

 about 15 yards from me, tossing his head about 

 and looking so formidable that I slammed the 

 half-opened breech and tried to fire the second 

 barrel. In my haste I pulled the wrong trigger, 

 and the rhino dashed past the tree to my right, 

 on which side Johnny was standing. He, in the 

 meantime, had fired twice with the Rigby-Mauser ; 

 and, as the rhino disappeared, he fired a third 

 shot at its stern. Turning to me with a beam- 

 ing countenance, he pointed to his heart and 

 said, " I shoot here/' As we subsequently found, 

 his first two shots missed the rhino altogether, 



