34 ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AFRICA chap. 



noon and got a shot at a rhino, half facing me, through a bush ; 

 but he made off, and though I followed the blood spoor a long 

 way I had to give it up and return empty-handed, having seen 

 no other game. I have found the truth of Selous' rule, that 

 when once a wounded rhino goes any considerable distance the 

 chance of ever getting him is very small. I only remember to 

 have once bagged one under such circumstances. In that 

 instance the rhino was shot through the shoulder, but the bone 

 did not break till it had galloped a mile or more, and I came 

 upon him again accidentally, unable to go farther. 



I was able to dry my things here, and made ready for an 

 early start the next day in the direction of Mthara ^ (the next 

 district to the westward, along the foot of the range) to look 

 for elephant spoor. There was thunder and rain again in the 

 night. The next morning I made an early start, leaving my 

 little caravan encamped and taking five men besides my gun- 

 bearer and a guide with me. On the way down to the flats 

 I saw two pairs of bush buck, and had a good look at one, 

 a fine handsome male, very red in colour. I did not interfere 

 with them, but was afterwards rather sorry I had not shot 

 this one as a specimen of the bush bucks of this part of 

 Africa. They are very far from common, and I think I only 

 saw one other (a female) on the whole trip. The country here, 

 at the northern base of the range, is very different from that 

 on the other side, no doubt owing to less rain falling. The 

 grass is comparatively short, it is much healthier for stock, 

 and more open and easier and pleasanter to get about in. 



After walking for some distance through open grassy flats, 

 sprinkled with thorn trees and studded here and there with 

 koppies, many of which were clearly small craters, keeping 

 parallel with the range, I saw a pair of rhino ahead, in very 



^ This name has been written Msara by German travellers, who cannot pronounce the 

 "th," but the natives themselves sound those letters quite distinctly, just as we do in 

 the words "that," "there," etc. In the same way the name of the river is really 

 Thana, not Tana. 



