300 FEOM THE NIGER TO THE NILE 



and crane forward their necks to snifE the approaching 

 danger. The next moment they would turn about and open 

 out in a long extended line as they sped away across the wide 

 plain. 



Rhino are also plentiful along the Shari. Gosling thus 

 describes an experience he had with one of these animals : 

 " Sah, my gun-boy, who was out a short distance from camp, 

 came running in saying, ' Elephant ! ' I was sitting learning 

 Arabic from Mustapha. Before I could put'my rifles together 

 there was a commotion among the donkeys thirty yards 

 away, and some angry snorts. A rhino then appeared about 

 twenty yards off and gazed at us for a moment and then 

 departed. A good many of the ' boys ' were instantly up 

 trees. I quickly pursued and shot him as he was crossing 

 a backwater which was about 3 ft. deep. Sticking in his 

 rump I found the barb of an arrow that had been received 

 from above, with a weight attached. The natives place 

 them above elephant paths. This must have been in for a 

 good many days and had failed to kill him. Under the 

 circumstances he might easily have charged the camp, rhino 

 having bad reputations for temper. . . . Two Banda 

 hunters came in with a ' dash ' of honey and to partake of the 

 feast of flesh. By the afternoon, when the King of Odio 

 arrived with a supply of ' geri,' there was absolutely nothing 

 left. The scene now at night with four camp-fires burning 

 is quite nice. The cry of leopard or baboon is occasionally 

 to be heard. This morning some one fired the bush close by, 

 and as the fire passed near us the noise resembled the rattle 

 of musketry. Great chaff is still going on as to who ran 

 away this morning." 



