104 
SOMALILAND 
shape of a huge rhinoceros. Exchanging my Express for 
the eight-bore, and getting behind some bushes, we crouched 
down to witness an extraordinary performance. The big 
beast had evidently got a whiff of our wind, for he careered 
about in a most alarming fashion, rushing up in this 
direction, and then turning and galloping off in that. At 
length he rushed straight for the very bush behind which I 
was concealed; I half turned round, and beheld my brave 
followers doing a ‘ guy ’ as hard as they could go. When 
the ^ rhino ’ got almost up to the bush, I could wait no longer, 
but stood up and flourished my rifle in its face, when it 
turned sharp to the right and bolted. Taking aim off the 
shoulder, I fired the heavy gun as he galloped away, which 
caused him to spin round and round as hard as he could 
move five or six times, like a huge top, and kicking up 
clouds of dust. He then bolted off quietly into some thick 
bushes. Now came the most unpleasant part of dangerous 
game-shooting, i.e., following wounded game in thick bush. 
However, after peering about in the bushes for a minute or 
two, we found the animal on the other side in the open, 
standing under a small thorn-tree. As I looked, he lay 
down and expired. The wart hog then reappeared close to 
the ‘ rhino’s ’ body, and, taking a shot at a large boar, I was 
unlucky enough to hit a smaller one, which walked past its 
companion as I was in the act of pressing the trigger. It 
fell dead almost at the hind-feet of the ‘ rhino.’ It possessed 
poor tusks. Running up to them, I found the ‘ rhino ’ a 
much larger beast than the first, and very much older. He 
measured 11 feet 6 inches from tip of nose to tip of tail, 
and his girth was 9 feet 6 inches. He had larger and more 
«* 
pointed horns than my first, the front horn, which was 
cracked, measuring ll-J inches round the curve. I found I 
had made a very good shot behind the shoulder, the bullet 
probably penetrating the animal’s heart. In the afternoon 
I photographed him, and on skinning him I found a large 
flattened spherical eight-bore bullet implanted between the 
skin and the flesh of his neck. How long it had been there 
