THE RHINOCEROS 67 



moreover, the rhinoceros, if undisturbed, visits, 

 over considerable periods, the same places for the 

 purpose of depositing his dung, which may 

 sometimes be found in great piles, and forms 

 another valuable indication of his presence in 

 a district. It closely resembles that of a hippo- 

 potamus, but is somewhat darker in colour. 



As I have already stated, the haunts of 

 rhinoceros are to be found in sparse upland 

 forest, on almost bare plains, and in rocky, 

 thorny jungle. It was in such surroundings as 

 the last-named that I came upon a very satis- 

 factory bull in the beautiful Gorongoza region 

 a few years ago. I was returning to my main 

 camp on the Vunduzi River, after an unsuccessful 

 search for elephants, and as usual was marching, 

 with Lengo my elephant hunter, some few 

 hundreds of yards ahead of my small party of 

 native carriers. The Vunduzi, at the time of 

 year at which the incident took place — ^namely, 

 the middle of the winter season — is a small 

 silvery stream of clear, cold water, splashing its 

 musical way through a splendid confusion of 

 big granite boulders, and under a leafy canopy 

 of forest green. Here an open, grassy space 

 where you could look upward at the mountain's 

 scarred, precipitous sides ; there a stretch of 

 thin forest where the stony ground yielded but 

 poor nourishment for the multitudinous grasses 

 which struggled for life. Small tongues of 

 glistening sand pushed their way into the crystal- 

 clear water, and on one of these, at an early 

 hour of the morning, we found the fresh spoor 



