116 
HIPPO AND LEOPARD 
[CH. V 
impeded. At the far end of the thicket we examined 
the grass to see if the rhino had passed out, and sure 
enough there was the spoor, with so much blood along 
both sides that it was evident the animal was badly hit. 
It led across this space and into another thicket of the 
same character as the first, and again we stole cautiously 
along the edge some ten yards out. I had taken the 
heavy Holland double-barrel, and with the safety catch 
pressed forward under my thumb, I trod gingerly 
through the grass, peering into the thicket and expec¬ 
tant of developments. In a minute there was a furious 
snorting and crashing directly opposite us in the thicket, 
and I brought up my rifle, but the rhino did not quite 
place us, and broke out of the cover in front, some 
thirty yards away, and I put both barrels into and 
behind the shoulder. The terrific striking force of the 
heavy gun told at once, and the rhino wheeled, and 
struggled back into the thicket, and we heard it fall. 
With the utmost caution, bending and creeping under 
the branches, we made our way in, and saw the beast 
lying with its head toward us. We thought it was 
dead, but would take no chances, and I put in another, 
but, as it proved, needless, heavy bullet. 
It was an old female, considerably smaller than the 
bull I had already shot, with the front horn measuring 
fourteen inches as against his nineteen inches ; as always 
with rhinos, it was covered with ticks, which clustered 
thickly in the folds and creases of the skin, around and 
in the ears, and in all the tender places. McMillan sent 
out an ox-waggon and brought it in to the house, where 
we weighed it. It was a little over two thousand two 
hundred pounds. It had evidently been in the neigh¬ 
bourhood in which we found it for a considerable time, 
for a few hundred yards away we found its stamping 
