This Cement
Appeared To Be The Same That Had Formed The Banks Of
Conglomerate, Which In Some Places Walled In The River For A
Depth Of Ten Or Fifteen Feet, With A Concrete Of Rounded Pebbles
Of All Sizes From A Nutmeg To A Thirty-Two Pound Shot.
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.
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