THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
for young sportsmen when first making the acquaintance of these formid- 
able-looking brutes, whose characters and tempers must always in the 
first instance be unknown quantities, to treat them with the caution and 
respect which is due to their tremendous strength and great activity, if 
these qualities should happen to be combined with a savage disposition. 
Some men of great experience in East Africa express the greatest contempt 
for rhinoceroses, whilst others again confess that they can never get over 
the nervousness they always feel in the presence of these always truculent - 
looking and sometimes really dangerous animals. The extraordinary 
diversity of opinion on the subject of the black rhinoceros in East Africa 
shows very clearly how impossible it is to lay down any hard and fast rules 
as to what the behaviour of one of these animals is likely to be under any 
given circumstances. 
Like all other African animals, to be killed quickly, rhinoceroses must 
be hit in a vital spot. They can often be so closely approached against the 
wind that they can be killed on the spot with a shot just below the root of 
the ear, which will penetrate the brain, and for this brain shot a very 
small-bore rifle is just as good as the most powerful weapon, though for 
body shots it will always be advisable to use the heaviest rifle in one’s 
battery. The heart and lungs are the vital organs to aim for; but, although 
a rhinoceros will quickly succumb to a shot which penetrates the large 
blood-vessels of both lungs, it is as well to remember that one of these 
animals, if only shot through one lung, or in any other part of the body 
other than the heart or lungs, is likely to travel many miles after having 
been wounded before halting or lying down. If the one foreleg or shoulder 
of a rhinoceros should be broken, it will gallop on three legs at quite a 
good pace for half a mile or so before stopping; but with a hind leg 
broken, or even a hind foot shattered by a bullet, it will at once come 
to a standstill. 
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