Part 18 (1/2)
XXI THE RHINOCEROS
The rhinoceros is, with the giraffe, the hippopotaerenuk, and the camel, one of Africa's unbelievable ani's description of hiy eyes, and few manners” He lives a self-centred life, wrapped up in the porcine contentment that broods within nor looks abroad over the land When anything external to hience hemadly and frantically here and there in a hysterical effort either to destroy or get away fro and perpetual Grouch
Generally he lives by himself, sometimes with his spouse, rown-up son or daughter I personally have never seen er bands, or rather collections, but, lacking other evidence, I should be inclined to suspect that soregariousness had attracted a number of individuals to one locality
The rhinoceros has three objects in life: to fill his stomach with food and water, to stand absolutely motionless under a bush, and to irass When disturbed at any of these occupations he snorts The snort sounds exactly as though the safety valve of a locoain after two seconds of escaping steam Then he puts his head down and rushes hs about two tons, and can, in spite of his appearance, get over the ground nearly as fast as an ordinary horse, he is a truly ienerally happens to be upwind, and hence in the general path of progress This is because the rhino's scent is his keenest sense, and through it he becomes aware, in the ht is very poor indeed; he cannot see clearly even aobject much beyond fifty yards He can, however, hear pretty well
The novice, then, is subjected to what he calls a ”vicious charge” on the part of the rhinoceros, merely because his scent was borne to the beast from upwind, and the rhino naturally runs away upwind He opens fire, and has another thrilling adventure to relate As a matter of fact, if he had approached from the other side, and then aroused the anied”
away in identically the same direction I am convinced from a fairly varied experience that this is the basis forexperiences with rhinoceroses
But whatever the beast's firsthe rushes, upwind in instinctive reaction against the strange scent If he catches sight of the man at all, it e, for only at close range are the rhino's eyes effective Then he is quite likely to finish as at first a blind dash by a genuine charge Whether this is fro that he is now too close to atteet away, I never was able determine It is probably in the majority of cases the latter This seems indicated by the fact that the rhino, if avoided in his first rush, will generally charge right through and keep on going Occasionally, however, he hirl and come back to the attack There can then be no doubt that he actually intends otten that with these anih account is taken of individual variation They, as well as man, and as well as other anihters, their slothful and their enterprising And, too, there seem to be truculent and peaceful districts North of Mt Kenia, between that peak and the Northern Guaso Nyero River,htest disposition to turn ugly In fact, they were so peaceful that they scrabbled off as fast as they could go every tiht they held their noses up, not down In the wide angle between the Tana and Thika rivers, and co the Yatta Plains, and in the thickets of the Tsavo, the rhinoceroses generally ran nose down in a position of attack and were ry passions ht of man Thus we never had our safari scattered by rhinoceroses in the former district, while in the latter the boys were up trees six ti picture e out of a rhino in a dozen tries, while Dugmore, in a different part of the country, was so chivied about that he finally left the district to avoid killing any more of the brutes in self-defence!
The fact of the matter is that the rhinoceros is neither ani passion ascribed to him by the amateur hunter, nor is he so purposeless and haphazard in his rushes as so disturbed his instinct is to get away He generally tries to get away in the direction of the disturbance, or upwind, as the case ht of the cause of disturbance he is apt to try to traht is short, he will so this he is probably not anie, but by a naturally pugnacious desire to eli a definite object, he thunders right through and disappears without trying again to discover what has aroused hie in the sense that it is an attack on a definite object It e at all, for the beast will blunder through without ever defining more clearly the object of his blind dash That dash is likely, however, at any e should the rhinoceros happen to catch sight of his disturber Whether the i motive would then be a mistaken notion that on the part of the beast he was so close he had to fight, or just plain malice, would not matter At such times the intended victim is not interested in the rhino'sto his size, his powerful arerous animal at all times, to be treated with respect and due caution This is proved by the number of white men, out of a sparse population, that are annually tossed and killed by the brutes, and by the promptness hich the natives take to trees-thorn trees at that!-when the cry of faru! is raised As he co weapon pointed, tail rigidly erect, ears up, the earth tre with his tread and the air with his snorts, you suddenly feel very small and ineffective
If you keep cool, however, it is probable that the encounter will result only in a lot of mental perturbation for the rhino and a bit of excitement for yourself If there is any cover you should duck down behind it and move rapidly but quietly to one side or another of the line of advance If there is no cover, you should crouch low and hold still The chances are he will pass to one side or the other of you, and go snorting away into the distance Keep your eye on him very closely
If he swerves definitely in your direction, AND DROPS HIS HEAD A LITTLE LOWER, it would be just as well to open fire Provided the beast was still far enough away to give me ”sea-room,” I used to put a small bullet in the flesh of the outer part of the shoulder The wound thus inflicted was not at all serious, but the shock of the bullet usually turned the beast This was generally in the direction of the wounded shoulder, which would indicate that the brute turned toward the apparent source of the attack, probably for the purpose of getting even At any rate, the shot turned the rush to one side, and the rhinoceros, as usual, went right on through If, however, he seemed to mean business, or was too close for comfort, the point to aim for was the neck just above the lowered horn
In my own experience I came to establish a ”dead line” about twenty yards from myself That seemed to be as near as I cared to let the brutes come Up to that point I let thee their minds, as they often did But inside of twenty yards, whether the rhinocerosblindly by, did not particularly ht ofover ed” forty odd tieneral direction Of this lot I can be sure of but three, and possibly four, that certainly meant mischief Six more came so directly at us, and continued so to come, that in spite of ourselves ere coed
As I have heard old hunters of many times my experience, affired indubitably and with ht be well to detailmyself definitely and not blindly attacked
The first instance was that when B killed his second trophy rhinoceros
The beast's co ti, however, and after we had been soed viciously It was finally killed at fifteen yards
The second instance was of a rhinoceros that got up fro in e of a narrow eroded ravine, ten feet deep, with perpendicular sides The rhinoceros cae of this ravine-and stopped Then he gave an exhibition of un to contemplate-from my safe position He snorted, and stareat rate
I sat on the opposite bank and laughed at him This did not please hie of the ravine, he gave it up and departed slowly, his tail very erect and rigid Froet atof the sort froravating In co to get a waterbuck Four or five hundred yards out, however, we cans, not an hour old To one who knew anything of buffaloes' habits this see they should be feeding not far away preparatory to seeking cover for the day Therefore we immediately took up the trail
It led us over hills, through valleys, high grass, burned country, brush, thin scrub, and small woodland alternately Unfortunately we had happened on these buffalo just as they were about changing district, and they were therefore travelling steadily At times the trail was easy to follow and at other tiently to find traces of the direction even such huge ani work, however, and we drew on steadily, keeping a sharp lookout ahead in case the buffalo had come to a halt in some shady thicket out of the sun As the latter ascended the heavens and the scorching heat increased, our confidence in nearing our quarry ascended likewise, for we knew that buffaloes do not like great heat
Nevertheless this band continued straight on its way I think now they ot scent of our camp, and had therefore decided to rounds every herd keeps in its habitat Only at noon, and after six hours of steady trailing, covering perhaps a dozen miles, did we catch them up
From the start we had been bothered with rhinoceroses Five ti al Then we had to make a wide quiet circle to leeward in order to avoid disturbing them, and were forced to a very ain on the other side This was at once an anxiety and a delay, and we did not love those rhino
Finally, at the very edge of the Yatta Plains we overtook the herd, resting for noon in a scattered thicket Leaving Fundi, I, with Memba Sasa, stalked down to theround, which was so hot that it fairly burned the hand The sun beat down on us fiercely, and the air was close and heavy even aet cover It was very hard work indeed, but after a half hour of it we gained a thin bush not over thirty yards fro in the very centre of a brush patch Cautiously I wiped the sweat frolasses It was sloork and patient work, picking out and exa each individual beast frolasses
”Monumookee y'otey-all cows,” I whispered to Memba Sasa
We backed out of there inch by inch, with intention of circling a short distance to the leeward, and then trying the herd again lower down But soht the eye of one of those blessed cows She threw up her head; instantly the whole thicket see and sta again; we could even catch limpses of dark bodies After a few e from the thicket five hundred yards away and flow up over the hill There were probably a hundred and fifty of the them two fine old bulls They were of course not much alarmed, as only the one cohat it was all about anyway, and I suspected they would stop at the next thicket