94 
ON SAFARI 
shooting a steinbuck on the way, when I saw two rhinos 
a mile away. The country was fairly open, and before 
I got up they had disappeared in some dry scrub. 
There was, just inside this scrub, what I took to be a 
low hillock, and which I purposed using for stalking. 
But to this my gun-bearer, Sulimani, objected most 
strongly. He said it was not a hillock, but rhinoceroses. 
We crouched behind a little bush and waited, but not 
for long. Hardly were we down before the group opened, 
and I saw there were seven rhinos in a cluster. 1 Two 
came rushing in my direction, and at forty yards I fired 
and dropped one, finding afterwards that the bullet had 
splintered its nose, and I now have the huge splinter of 
bone, 1 8 ins. long, with the horns mounted on it. 
“ Leaving Sulimani to skin the beast, I went, with 
one porter, after an oryx that I could see considerably 
more than a mile away, but could not get anywhere 
near it. I followed it nearly five miles, passing on the 
way another rhino, that I marked in case I lost the 
oryx. 
“ On the way back I passed an immense herd of 
eland, fully one hundred, and then returned to the rhino. 
It was 120 yards away, with its back towards me. I sat 
down in grass eighteen inches high and waited. After 
ten minutes the rhino turned round and walked slowly 
towards me, grazing. The man I had with me became 
frightened, and after creeping for some distance through 
the grass, jumped to his feet and ran. This aroused the 
beast, for it lifted its head and looked after the man, 
giving me the chance I wanted. I put a solid bullet in 
the centre of its chest, about twelve inches up; it took 
two or three short quick steps and went down heavily, 
head-first, its body slewing round as it fell. It made one 
futile effort to rise, but did not succeed in even lifting 
its head, and then lay motionless. I put in a second 
shot to make sure, but might as well have fired at a 
rock, as it did not move in any way. There seemed to 
1 As related in a subsequent chapter, the author on one occasion 
came across a “ hillock ” of six rhinos in a cluster. 
