THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
approached, I have never heard of the death of any other white man by the 
horns of one of these animals in that part of the continent. Amongst all 
the well-known English travellers and hunters of the last century in 
South Africa, Mr W. Cotton Oswell and C. J. Andersson are the only men 
who met with severe injuries in hunting these animals, and the last- 
named seems to have courted the accident he met with by going close up 
to a rhinoceros in the dark which he thought he had mortally wounded. 
However, although in my own experience in South Africa, I never found 
the character of the black rhinoceros to be as black as it had been painted, 
yet I am inclined to think that in some districts in East Africa a certain 
percentage of these animals may be expected to make themselves dis- 
agreeable. But opinions differ very much as to what that percentage 
of vicious and aggressive animals really is. Some sportsmen in East 
Africa aver that almost every rhinoceros they saw either charged them or 
was on the point of charging when stopped by a well-directed bullet, or 
would have charged if it could only have made them out. Others, again, 
consider that although some rhinoceroses in East Africa are really savage 
and dangerous animals, the majority will avoid all contact with human 
beings if they possibly can do so. My own experience with black rhino- 
ceroses in East Africa has not been very large, and I cannot therefore give 
any opinion regarding the character of these animals in that part of the 
continent. My friend, Captain C. H. Stigand, however, who has had a 
very large experience with black rhinoceroses in East and Central Africa, 
and who is not only an expert hunter, but a very observant naturalist, has 
recently written as follows* on the much -disputed question as to the 
general character of the black rhinoceros: 
“ My view is somewhat as follows: 
“ First of all, there are the many rhino you see, but which do not 
perceive you either by hearing or smell. These can be practically put 
out of the discussion. So a man walking about in an open rhino country 
and having his wits about him may see many rhino and meanwhile 
himself be only in the slightest danger. But rhino often suddenly make 
up their minds to run in a certain direction, apparently for no object, 
and as suddenly decide to stop still or to run off somewhere else. 
Thus even some of these might have the appearance of coming for 
you or might run across the wind of a sportsman after he had taken 
every precaution. 
* The Game of British East Africa, by Captain C; H. Stigand, F.R.G.S., F.Z.S. 
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