I Fired The Grass On The West Bank Of The Royan, And The Blaze Extended With Such Rapidity, That In A Few Hours Many Miles Of Country Were Entirely Cleared.

On the following morning, the country looked as though covered with a pall of black velvet.

To my astonishment there were the fresh tracks of a rhinoceros within a quarter of a mile of the camp: this animal must have concealed itself in the bed of the Royan during the fire, and had wandered forth when it had passed. I followed up the tracks with Bacheet and two of my Tookrooris. In less than half a mile from the spot, I found it lying down behind a bush, and creeping under cover of an ant-hill, I shot it through the shoulder with a Reilly No. 10; it immediately galloped off, but after a run of a couple of hundred yards it lay down on the edge of thick thorny jungle that bordered the margin of the Royan. I waited, in the expectation that it would shortly die, but it suddenly rose, and walked slowly into the thorns. Determined to cut off its retreat, I pushed through the bushes, intending to reach the dry bed of the Royan and shoot the rhinoceros as it crossed from the narrow belt of the jungle, into which it had retreated; but I had hardly reached half way, when I heard a sound in the bush upon my right, and I saw the wounded beast coming straight for our position, but evidently unconscious of our presence, as we were to leeward. I immediately crouched down, as did my men likewise, lest the animal should observe us. Slowly, but surely, it came on exactly towards us, until it was at last so near as to be unpleasant: I looked behind me, and I saw by the expression of my men that they were thinking of retreat. I merely shook my fist, and frowned at them to give them confidence, and I waited patiently for my opportunity. It was becoming too ridiculous; the rhinoceros was within five or six yards, and was slowly but steadily advancing direct upon us. At the next step that he made, I raised my rifle gently to my shoulder, and whistled sharply: in an instant it tossed its head up, and seeing nothing in front, as my clothes matched with the leafless bushes, it turned its head to the left, and I immediately pulled the trigger. It fell as though smitten by a sledge hammer, and it lay struggling on the ground. Bacheet sprang forward, and with an Arab sword he cut the hamstring of one leg. To the astonishment of us all, the rhinoceros jumped up, and on three legs it sprang quickly round and charged Bacheet, who skipped into the bushes, while I ran alongside the rhinoceros as it attempted to follow him, and, with Fletcher No. 24, I fired through the shoulder, by placing the muzzle within a yard of the animal.

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