SPORT ON THE GUASO MARU 



among the acacias a mile away, and the backs of two rhinocer- 

 oses showing above the grass half a mile beyond. Leaving the 

 natives behind, and each of us accompanied by a gun-bearer, 

 my friend started toward the giraffes, while I toiled up the slope 

 toward the place where we had last seen the feeding rhinos. 

 Three-quarters of an hour later we were quietly stealing 

 through the short grass near this spot, when a cow rhino sud- 

 denly arose to its feet in a tangle of high grass which flourished 

 around the base of an acacia sixty yards distant. This brought 

 us to an abrupt stop, but as the rhino lay down again after 

 satisfying its fears we cautiously approached to within thirty 

 yards of the patch of grass. Supposing that this cow was ac- 

 companied by a bull, I motioned Faki to hurl a rock into the 

 midst of the patch. Both rhinos lurched to their feet, staring 

 in our direction, and discovering that they were a cow and 

 partially grown calf we immediately began slowly backing 

 away from the scene. At this moment a light puff of w4nd 

 carried our scent to them, and with heads erect both animals 

 came toward us at a trot. We both knelt down and covered 

 the female with our rifles, but when it was only about three 

 yards distant the breeze died away, and the cow hesitated and 

 stopped. We attempted to crawl around the rhinos to the 

 shelter of some acacias lower down the slope, but they followed 

 us at a walk in whatever direction we crept. This farce kept 

 up for fully half an hour, during which time we practically wore 

 out the knees of our trousers in crawling over the hard ground, 

 and were on the point of killing the female several times in 

 order, as I thought, to save our lives. Finally a succession of 

 distant rifle-reports from where my friend was shooting at long 

 range at the giraffes distracted this old lady's attention from us 

 long enough to enable us to make an undignified bolt down the 

 mountain-side to the shelter of the trees. Looking backward 

 from a safe distance, we could see that these two rhinos were 

 still nosing about in the grass in search of us. Later I discovered 



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