CHAP. IX.] RHINOCEROS VEAL. 275 



warrant a shot. Another moment, and he is within 

 ten yards, and walking steadily on. There lies a stone, 

 on which you had laid your caross and other things, 

 when making ready to enter your shooting-screen ; the 

 beast has come to it, he sniffs the taint of them, tosses 

 liis head up wind, and turns his huge bulk fuU broad- 

 side on to you. Not a second is to be lost. Bang ! 

 and the bullet lies well home under his shoulder. 

 Then follows a plunge and a rush, and the animal 

 charges madly about, making wide sweeps to right and 

 left with his huge horn, as you crouch down still and 

 almost breathless, and with every nerve on the stretch. 

 He is off ; you hear his deep blowing in the calm 

 night ; now his gallop ceases. The occasional rattling 

 of a stone alone indicates that he is yet a-foot ; for a 

 moment all is still, and then a scarcely audible 

 " sough " informs you that the great beast has sunk 

 to the ground, and that his pains of death are over. 



The animals are picked up in the morning ; but it is 

 not very easy to find them. Spooring is, in most 

 cases, quite out of the question, on account of the 

 numberless tracks. The Bushmen jerked every 

 particle of the meat of all the animals that we 

 killed, excepting that which we used ourselves. I like 

 rliinoceros flesh more than that of any other wild 

 animal. A young calf, rolled up in a piece of spare 

 hide, and baked in the earth is excellent. I hardly 

 know which part of the little animal is the best, the 

 skin or the flesh. 



The Hottentots shot away a great many bullets 

 at rhinoceroses, and did, I dare say, a great deal of 



