280 
African Game Trails 
bush near by to look about. One remained 
standing, but the other deliberately sat 
down upon its haunches like a dog, staring 
ahead, Kermit meanwhile being busy with 
his camera. Two or three times I saw rhi¬ 
no, when roused from sleep, thus sit up 
on their haunches and look around before 
rising on all four legs; but this was the only 
time that any of us saw a rhino which was 
already standing assume such a position. 
No other kind of heavy game has this habit; 
and indeed, so far as I know, only one other 
hoofed animal, the white goat of the north¬ 
ern Rocky Mountains. In the case of the 
white goat, however, the attitude is far more 
often assumed, and in more extreme form; 
it is one of the characteristic traits of the 
queer goat-antelope, so many of whose ways 
and looks are peculiar to itself alone. 
From the lily pond camp we went back 
to our camp outside Sururu’s village. This 
was a very pleasant camp because while 
there, although the heat was intense in the 
daytime, the nights were cool and there 
were no mosquitoes. During our stay in 
the Lado it was generally necessary to wear 
head nets and gloves in the evenings and to 
go to bed at once after dinner, and then to 
lie under the mosquito bar with practically 
nothing on through the long hot night, 
sleeping or contentedly listening to the 
humming of the baffled myriads outside 
the net. At the Sururu camp, however, we 
could sit at a table in front of the tents, after 
supper—or dinner, whichever one chose to 
call it—and read by lamplight, in the still, 
cool, pleasant air; or walk up and down the 
hard, smooth elephant path which led by the 
tents, looking at the large red moon just 
risen, as it hung low over the horizon, or 
later, when, white and clear, it rode high 
in the heavens and flooded the land with its 
radiance. 
There was a swamp close by, and we 
went through this the first afternoon in 
search of buffalo. We found plenty of 
sign; but the close-growing reeds were ten 
feet high, and even along the winding buf¬ 
falo trails by which alone, they could be 
penetrated it was impossible to see a dozen 
paces ahead. Inside the reeds it was nearly 
impossible to get to the buffalo, or at least 
to be sure to kill only a bull, which was all I 
wanted; and at this time when the moon 
was just past the full, these particular buf¬ 
falo only came out into the open to feed at 
night, or very early in the morning and 
late in the evening. But Sururu said that 
there were other buffalo which lived away 
from the reeds, among the thorn-trees on 
the grassy flats and low hills; and he volun¬ 
teered to bring me information about them 
on the morrow. Sure enough, shortly be¬ 
fore eleven next morning, he turned up with 
the news that he had found a solitary bull 
only about five miles away. Grogan and 
I at once started back with him, accom¬ 
panied by our gunbearers. The country 
was just such as that in which we had hith¬ 
erto found our rhinos; and there was fresh 
sign of rhino as well as buffalo. The 
thorny, scantily leaved trees were perhaps a 
little closer together than in most places, 
and there were a good many half-burned 
patches of tall grass. We passed a couple 
of ponds which must have been permanent, 
as water-lilies were growing in them; at 
one a buffalo had been drinking. It was 
half-past twelve when we reached the place 
where Sururu had seen the bull. We then 
advanced with the utmost caution, as the 
wind was shifty, and although the cover was 
thin, it yet rendered it difficult to see a hun¬ 
dred yards in advance. At last we made 
out the bull, on his feet and feeding, al¬ 
though it was high noon. He was stern 
toward us, and while we were stealing tow¬ 
ard him a puff of wind gave him our scent. 
At once he whipped around, gazed at us 
for a moment with outstretched head, and 
galloped off. I could not get a shot through 
the bushes, and after him we ran, Kongoni 
leading, with me at his heels. It was hot 
work running, for at this time the thermom¬ 
eter registered 102° in the shade. Fort¬ 
unately the bull had little fear of man, and 
being curious, and rather truculent, he 
halted two or three times to look round. 
Finally, after we had run a mile and a half, 
he halted once too often, and I got a shot 
at him at eighty yards. The heavy bullet 
went home; I fired twice again as rapidly 
as possible, and the bull never moved from 
where he had stood. He was an old bull, 
as big as an East African buffalo bull; but 
his worn horns were smaller and rather 
different. This had rendered Kongoni 
uncertain whether he might not be a cow; 
and when we came up to the body he ex¬ 
claimed with delight that it was a “duck” 
—Kongoni’s invariable method of pro¬ 
nouncing “buck,” the term he used to de- 
