NOISY MIDNIGHT COMPANIONS. 
127 
In the course of the day, I shot a fine impala, 
which we hung up in a tree, intending to take him 
home as we returned; but when we came back, we 
found nothing but bones left: the vultures had 
pulled him down, skinned, and finished him. 
19th. — I was resting under a tree, when we 
sighted a white rhinoceros cow. I stalked up to 
within about twenty yards of her. She was very 
uneasy, perceiving danger, but not knowing from 
what quarter to expect it. She made straight for 
me, at a round trot, and I dropped her with a bullet 
in the chest. She rose immediately, and I struck 
her again, but she got away. We were long in 
tracing her spoor, as the ground was hard and stony, 
and we never saw her again; but, in following her, 
we came on an old black bull, which I shot dead 
behind the shoulder. I pitched the tent near his 
carcase, intending to have a shot at a tiger at night, 
but it was too dark to see anything, and the wolves, 
jackals, and hyenas made such a noise all night as I 
never wish to hear again. They fought over every 
mouthful, and chased one another madly, and, though 
I fired occasionally at random, it had no effect. Fre¬ 
quently some of them tumbled over my tent-ropes, 
startling me out of a broken slumber. My fellows 
had strongly advised me not to sleep there, and 
wisely took themselves off three or four hundred 
yards ; and, could I have found them in the dark, I 
should have moved my quarters. The wolves and 
hyenas had made an end of the bull by the morning. 
