io8 
WILD BEASTS AND THEIR WAYS 
CHAP. 
making its exit upon the opposite side. The animal 
staggered a short distance, and then, emitting a few 
shrill squeaks, quite disproportioned in sound to the 
great size of the beast, it fell and died. 
This proved the advantage of a hardened and 
heavy bullet for such an animal, instead of pure 
lead, although the latter would have been preferable 
for a thin-skinned beast. 
Although the rhinoceros is dangerous, I have 
never heard of many casualties among sportsmen. 
This may be explained by the comparatively small 
number of persons who have engaged in the sport. 
It is quite impossible to determine the exact amount 
of risk in the encounter with any animal, as they 
vary in character and pugnacity. The black 
rhinoceros is generally accepted as the most vicious, 
and the huge white variety the most harmless, but 
the uncertainty in the sport is the charm to the 
hunter, and I will relate an incident that befell a 
friend of mine, which will exhibit this uncertainty in 
a striking manner. 
Mr. Oswell was one of the early Nimrods in 
South Africa, at the same time that the renowned 
Roualeyn Gordon Gumming was paving the way 
for fresh adventures. There never was a better 
sportsman or more active follower of the chase than 
Oswell ; he had gone to Africa for the love of 
hunting and adventure, at a time when the greater 
portion was unbroken ground. He was the first to 
bring Livingstone into notice when he was an 
unknown missionary, and Oswell and Murray took 
