I Saw The Rhinoceros Pelting Away
About A Hundred And Twenty Yards Ahead, And Spurring Hard, I Shot
Up To Him At Full Speed Until Within Twenty Yards, When Round He
Came With Astonishing Quickness And Charged Straight At The
Horse.
I was prepared for this, as was my horse also; we avoided
him by a quick turn, and again renewed the chase, and regained
our position within a few yards of the game.
Thus the hunt
continued for about a mile and a half, the rhinoceros
occasionally charging, but always cleverly avoided by the horse.
Tetel seemed to enjoy the fun, and hunted like a greyhound.
Nevertheless I had not been able to pass the rhinoceros, who had
thundered along at a tremendous pace whenever I had attempted to
close; however, the pace began to tell upon his wounded shoulder;
he evidently went lame, and, as I observed at some distance
before us the commencement of the dark-coloured rotten ground I
felt sure that it would shortly be a case of 'stand still.' In
this I was correct, and, upon reaching the deep and crumbling
soil, he turned sharp round, made a clumsy charge that I easily
avoided, and he stood panting at bay. Taher Noor was riding
Gazelle; this was a very timid horse and was utterly useless as
a hunter, but, as it reared and plunged upon seeing the
rhinoceros, that animal immediately turned towards it with the
intention of charging. Riding Tetel close to his flank, I fired
both barrels of the little Fletcher into the shoulder; he fell to
the shots, and, stretching out his legs convulsively, he died
immediately."
This was a capital termination to the hunt; as I had expected the
death of my good horse Tetel, when the first rhinoceros had so
nearly horned him.
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