A WHITE RHINOCEROS 



57 



lol borngnisliu, and we greatly enjoyed the evening with its 

 soft dustless breeze. 



The next day the Count surprised and brought down a pair 

 of buffaloes in a narrow valley, when we had marched for three 

 hours only, and as there was water hard by in two rock}^ pools 

 we decided to halt here, and divide the meat at once, thus 

 really saving time in the end. 



Maintaining our north-easterly course along the edge of 

 the highlands, we reached the next day the Amaya stream, 

 which flows through a broad valley with a north-western out- 

 let almost completely shut in by declivities of the steep volcanic 

 plateau. The Amaya has a fairly good volume of water, but its 

 bed is so deep that, in spite of the fine trees on its banks, it is 

 easily overlooked ; and we actually halted on February 16 by a 

 dried-up brook and got water by digging, without a suspicion 

 that we were so near a beautiful rivulet. 



During this march the Count brought down a white rhino- 

 ceros. I am perfectly well aware that science does not admit 

 the existence of a white variety of the rhinoceros group, and, 

 therefore, I do not claim the distinction of a separate species 

 for our booty ; but I do say that its skin was very much 

 lighter than that of any other animal of the kind I ever saw. 

 It was of a light silvery grey, and white was most certainly 

 the right word to use for it. It was perfectly free from 

 stains, so that it did not owe its exceptional colour to dust 

 or mud. 



On the 17th we marched along the Amaya stream for not 

 quite two hours, and then halted near its source. We were 

 getting tired of these short marches and constant halts, which 

 were no longer necessary for the sake of our men, and we told 

 our guide Barnoti that we must press on more rapidly. It then 

 turned out that he had ordered a halt because he was not sure 

 of the way. He had only crossed this district once, some ten 



