Part 18 (2/2)

We had only one small canteen of water with us, but we divided that It probably did us good, but the quantity was not sufficient to touch our thirst For the remainder of the day we suffered rather severely, as the sun was fierce

After a short interval we followed on after the buffaloes Within a half mile beyond the crest of the hill over which they had disappeared was another thicket At the very edge of the thicket, asleep under an outlying bush, stood one of the big bulls!

Luck seeht, and between us and the bull lay only four hundred yards of knee-high grass All we had to do was to get down on our hands and knees, and, without further precautions, crawl up within range and pot him That meant only a bit of hard, hot work

When ere about halfway a rhinoceros suddenly arose frorass between us and the buffalo, and about one hundred yards away

What had aroused him, at that distance and upwind, I do not know It hardly see very quietly, and, as I say, ere doind However, there he was on his feet, sniffing now this way, now that, in search for what had alar that the brute would make off

For just twenty-five minutes by the watch that rhinoceros looked and looked deliberately in all directions while we lay hidden waiting for hiet over it Sometimes he would start off quite confidently for fifty or sixty yards, so that we thought at last ere rid of him, but always he returned to the exact spot where we had first seen him, there to stamp, and blow The buffalo paid no attention to these leland is accusto Twice he ca twenty-five yards or so We lay flat on our faces, the vertical sun slowly roasting us, and cursed that rhino

Now the significance of this incident is twofold: first, the fact that, instead of rushi+ng off at the first intie rhino, he went methodically to work to find us; second, that he displayed such remarkable perseverance as to keep at it nearly a half hour This was a spirit quite at variance with that finding its expression in the blind rush or in the sudden passionate attack Fronificance of the incident can hardly be overstated

Four or five tiht ourselves freed of the nuisance, but always, just as ere about to er as ever to nose us out Finally he gave it up, and, at a slow trot, started to go away frorees of the circle where he one he selected just our direction Note that this was doind for him, and that rhinoceroses usually escape upwind

We laid very low, hoping that, as before, he would change his , but travelling Nearer and nearer he caular swish, swish, swish of his thick legs brushi+ng through the grass The regularity of his trot never varied, but toon altogether too fast for co as a barn Me I hated to shoot, but finally when he loomed fairly over us I saw it must be now or never If I allowed him to come closer, he un and so charge right on us before I would have time to deliver even an ineffective shot Therefore, reat Holland gun just to the point of his shoulder and pulled the trigger So close was he that as he toppled forward I instinctively, though unnecessarily of course, shrank back as though he ht fall on me Fortunately I had picked my spot properly, and no second shot was necessary He fell just twenty-seven feet-nine yards--from where we lay!

The buffalo vanished into the blue We were left with a dead rhino, which we did not want, twelve miles from camp, and no water It was a hard hike back, but we h nearly perished froe us at all, but I consider him as one of the three undoubtedly animated by hostile intentions Of the others I can, at this ht not have been actually and ed

I a to believe in their entirely altruistic intentions Only, if they want to get the practical results of their said altruistic intentions they ht at me nearer than twenty yards It has been stated that if one stands perfectly still until the rhinoceros is just six feet away, and then jumps sideways, the beast will pass him I never happened to meet anybody who had acted on this theory I suppose that such exist: though I doubt if any persistent exponent of the art is likely to exist long Personally I like my own method, and stoutly maintain that within twenty yards it is up to the rhinoceros to begin to do the dodging

XXII THE RHINOCEROS-(continued)

At first the traveller is pleased and curious over rhinoceros After he has seen and encountered eight or ten, he begins to look upon theated nuisance By the tiets fairly to hating theh in the open plains, where they can be seen and avoided, but in the tall grass or the scrub they are a continuous anxiety No cover seeh to reveal them Often they will stand or lie absolutely immobile until you are within a very short distance, and then will outrageously break out They are, in spite of their clumsy build, as quick and active as polo ponies, and are the only beasts I know of capable of leaping into full speed ahead from a recumbent position In thorn scrub they are the worst, for there, no matter how alert the traveller may hold himself, he is likely to come around a bush s, abrupt crash and s, his heart racing, the blood pounding through his veins It is jumpy work, and is very hard on the te startled into fits one snaps back to profanity The cu and inconsiderately hasty rhinocerosthe temper of the species It does not erous; he is inevitably ht witha day's journey through high grass

And, as a friend remarked, rhinos are such a mussy death One poor chap, killed while ere away on our first trip, could not be moved from the spot where he had been trampled A few shovelfuls of earth over the remains was all the rhinoceros had left possible

Fortunately, in the thick stuff especially, it is often possible to avoid the chance rhinoceros through the warning given by the rhinoceros birds These are birds about the size of a robin that acco his back occupying theood place to roost Always they are peaceful and quiet until a hu approaches Then they flutter a few feet into the air uttering a peculiar rapid chattering Writers with more sentiment than sense of proportion assure us that this warns the rhinoceros of approaching danger! On the contrary, I always looked at it the other way The rhinoceros birds thereby warned ME of danger, and I was duly thankful

The safari boys stand quite justly in a holy awe of the rhino The safari is strung out over a , and a doind rhino is sure to pierce soo the loads with a smash, and up the nearest trees swares are thorn trees, ar sharp spikes There is no difficulty in going up, but the gingerly co down, after all the excitement has died, is a hay, but solitary, sapling into which swarmed half his safari on the advent of a rambunctious rhino The tree swayed and bent and cracked alarround At each crack the boys yelled This attracted the rhinoceros, which ied the tree full tilt He hit square, the tree shi+vered and creaked, the boys wound their ars around the slender support and howled frantically Again and again rhinoceros drew back to repeat his butting of that tree By the ti burden of black birds, was clinging to the soil by its last reentleone at the shoulder

He told his story in a slightly bored and drawling voice, picking his words very carefully, and evidentlythe case It seems he had been out, and had killed some sort of a buck While his men were occupied with this, he strolled on alone to see what he could find He found a rhinoceros, that charged viciously, and into which he eun

”When I ca on dusk, and the lions were beginning to grunt My arm was completely crushed, and I was badly bruised and knocked about As near as I could remember I was fully ten miles from camp A circle of carrion birds stood all about reatin the air These last were so close that I could feel the wind froht a ahis words ”In fact,” he added with an air of final conviction, ”it was QUITE gruesome!”

The most calm and imperturbable rhinoceros I ever saas one that made us a call on the Thika River It was just noon, and our boys were 's march The usual racket was on, and the usual varied movement of rather confused industry Suddenly silence fell

We ca spellbound in one direction There was a rhinoceros wandering peaceably over the little knoll back of camp, and headed exactly in our direction While atched, he strolled through the edge of cae, drank, cliain and departed over the hill To us he paid not the slightest attention It seems impossible to believe that he neither scented nor saw any evidences of human life in all that populated flat, especially when one considers how often these beasts will SEEM to become aware of man's presence by telepathy Perhaps he was the one exception to the whole race, and was a good-natured rhino

Opposing theories are those of ”instinct,” and of slight causes, such a grasshoppers leaping before the hunter's feet, not noticed by theand a creatures, with blunt noses on which the horns are just beginning to form, and with even fewer manners than their parents The mere fact of an 800-pound baby does not cease to be curious They are truculent little creatures, and soet on the warpath Generally, as far as ives birth to but one at a time There may be occasional twin births, but I happen never to havea family