114 TRAPPING WILD ANIMALS 
must capture, has a more difficult job. He must 
work and build his trap at the very spot frequented 
by the animal and he must do so without exciting 
suspicion. A rhinoceros seldom charges when he 
sees a man, and his charge is not dangerous, for he 
is short-sighted and cannot gauge his direction 
accurately. Most often he runs, and it is almost 
impossible, even when the collector can find him 
again, to chase or lure him back to the trap. 
No animals were at the puddle when we arrived, 
and I had a good opportunity to examine the loca- 
tion. Then we withdrew and I told the men how 
we should go about making the capture. We made 
camp, building platforms between the trees for liv- 
ing-quarters, and I detailed some of the men to the 
work on a rattan net, which measured twenty by 
fifteen feet, with meshes ten inches square. I felt 
that we had a good chance of getting a rhinoceros 
in a net-trap and should save ourselves much time 
and labor if we could do so. When the net was 
ready, we put it in position at a likely-looking - 
approach—half on the ground, where the animal 
would step into it, and half suspended, so that he 
would catch it with his head and bring it down 
about him. 
Then we turned our attention to making pits. As 
I have explained before, a heavy animal was sure 
to injure himself in falling into a square pit such 
as the natives generally dug, and, of course, an 
injured animal would have been of no use to me. 
