122 TAVETA AND MOUNTS KILIMANJARO AND MERIT 



was not particularly reassuring, and only after a long search 

 with the help of glasses did I spy a small herd of giraffes 

 browsing far away to leeward. Giraffes are very difficult to 

 stalk, as their long necks enable them to see over the bushes, 

 and, besides, they always keep a good look-out. With very 

 little hope of a satisfactory result, I set to work to hunt the 

 shy creatures. As the wind was unfavourable to me, I had to 

 make a wide detour ; but I had hardly stepped on to the plain, 

 leaving the bush behind me, before I came quite suddenly upon 

 a rhinoceros. A shot from my rifle, calibre 8, made it whirl 

 round several times and dash off with a speed no one would 

 have expected from such a heavy animal. When it was some 

 200 paces off it stopped, swayed to and fro for a few moments, 

 then, as the blood poured from its mouth, it fell down dead. 



A little later I came upon a pair of rhinoceroses standing 

 carelessly at the edge of a thicket, one completely caked with 

 brown mud, the other of a black colour. This time I fired with 

 my 500 Express rifle, at a distance of some seventy paces, at 

 the shoulder of the larger of the two animals. The wounded 

 creature dashed away, whilst the other, after hesitating a 

 moment, followed it, and I found one lying dead in the bush, 

 the other standing beside it. For the third time I fired, bring- 

 ing down my third rhinoceros. In each case my charge had 

 taken effect behind the shoulder-blade and pierced both lungs. 

 I felt I had done enough now, and, leaving my gun-bearer 

 beside my trophies, I returned to camp to send men out to 

 fetch the meat. 



Count Teleki had not been so successful, as he had only 

 brought down two fine water-bucks, and had sighted no other 

 game. The so-called water-buck is one of the finest of the 

 antelope family. Except for the antlers, it greatly resembles 

 in form, colour, and size the noble stag of Europe. It takes its 

 name from the fact that its habitat is always near running water. 



