CHAPTER X. 
The spoor of big game. 
The white man can never hope to compete successfully 
with the black man in following the spoor of big game. 
One would imagine that an animal possessing the weight 
of a rhinoceros would leave such an imprint upon the 
ground that it would be impossible to lose it. But wait 
till the rhinoceros walks over stony ground, and you will 
be nonplussed in less than five minutes ; your shikari, how- 
ever, will follow almost at a run, pointing with his finger 
at the track among the stones, which, stare as you will, 
you cannot make out. The track of an elephant is much 
more easy to follow over rocky ground, owing to the havoc 
wrought on the trees and thorn-bushes by his trunk on 
either side of his path, which is strewn with half-chewed 
branches and leaves. The rhinoceros, on the other hand, 
when on the march, does not appear to feed as he goes, but 
waits until he reaches his favourite feeding-ground. An 
ostrich is a tiresome bird to track. He walks and runs in 
large circles. 
When a lion has discovered he is being tracked, he will 
often make a circle, and, reaching his own track again, will 
follow it up till he sees you, when he will make off at a 
run. You will easily see when he begins to run by his 
spoor. The claw-marks will show in the sand, and the 
sand will be thrown back a little by the pad of the foot. 
A leopard will follow you round like a lion, and often see 
you home, as he knows that where men live, there will in 
18—2 
