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Show 1894.] WHITE RHINOCEROS IN MASHONALAND. 333 Mr. Arthur Eyre, succeeded in shooting an old cow; she had a small calf with her, and we captured it with the intention of bringing it to England. In spite of our greatest care, however, it died on the ninth day. I wrote an account of this to the ' Field,' and received subsequently a commission from a great English collector to shoot a specimen for him. In the first few days of June 1893 I started alone from Salisbury and, by the greatest of good luck, found some spoor in North-east Mashonaland before the end of July. I then formed a permanent camp, and began to work up and trace the spoor. For five days from sunrise till dark I patrolled and quartered every yard of country for a good number of miles, and on the sixth day I saw-though so far off that they appeared like dark specks-two of the huge brutes I was searching for. The first thing to do of course was to get below the wind, as when they were first sighted the wind blew directly from me to them. In an hour's time I was crawling towards them through the fringe of bush that lay about 150 to 170 yards below the open position they had chosen for their midday siesta. I thought they might give m e some trouble, so I took my coloured boy with me-he could shoot rather well and carried a single 12-bore rifle. As I crawled on my stomach towards them with the greatest possible care, I saw one of them had become suspicious and had got on to his feet, evidently much disturbed. When this happened I flattened myself lower if possible into the sharp grass stubble and black ash-this latter was the result of a devastating grass fire which had occurred a few weeks before. It seemed hours before this very painful crawl brought m e to the small tuft of dry grass I was making for. After waiting for some time I was relieved to see the other brute stand up ; I whispered a few words to the boy, and then kneeling right up quickly we lifted the rifles. The larger bull stood on the left and almost facing me, the other stood broadside on ; I did not wish to break any great bones, so I did not fire at the point of the shoulder-which would have been the usual shot under the circumstances-but put the bullet from the 10-bore "Paradox" between the first two ribs and into the lung : as the huge brute spun round. I put the second shot behind the ribs ; it travelled forwards and also, I found afterwards, reached the lungs. The boy fired his rifle almost simultaneously with my first shot, and as the animals went off in opposite directions we jumped up and followed them at our best pace. For over a mile the old bull went like a steam-engine; he gradually, however, settled down, and I came up and gave him two more bullets from behind : this helped him on again, but not for more than half a mile, when he slackened again. I soon ran up to him and found him beginning to stagger, for all this time he had been throwing blood by the gallon from his nostrils. One more shot finished him, and as he sank down with a kind of sob the buffalo-birds (Buphaga) left him and Math shrill notes of alarm they flew up and, circling for a few minutes over us, disappeared in the direction that the other rhinoceros had taken. I was completely exhausted by the severe run, and taking out my |
