. On safari : big game hunting in British East Africa, with studies in bird-life . uifs and green sandpipers. Returning to camp after the adventures of thisnight, we examined the rhino. All our three bullets,we found, had got well home ; but the shot that hadactually done the deed was little short of a miracle—Providential. Missing by a hairs-breadth the two greathorns as the beast came on headlong, it had crashed intothe massive neck between the ears, smashing the spinalcolumn. Had the ball touched either horn, it musthave been deflected. It was my pony, Goldfinch, we now learned, that 142 ON
. On safari : big game hunting in British East Africa, with studies in bird-life . uifs and green sandpipers. Returning to camp after the adventures of thisnight, we examined the rhino. All our three bullets,we found, had got well home ; but the shot that hadactually done the deed was little short of a miracle—Providential. Missing by a hairs-breadth the two greathorns as the beast came on headlong, it had crashed intothe massive neck between the ears, smashing the spinalcolumn. Had the ball touched either horn, it musthave been deflected. It was my pony, Goldfinch, we now learned, that 142 ON SAFARI had first called the watchmans attention to the rhino,by whinnying and straining on the picket-ropes. Therecan be no doubt this was the same rhino we had run intoearlier in the evening; for this is not a rhino country,and there was no spoor or sign of their beast had been travelling along the lake-shorewhen Mabrukis shot turned him back at 8 , butby , midnight, he was back again—probablyin bad humour—and this time almost into our camp !. SACRED IBIS. Here are put down for comparison the measurementsof this and of another big rhino bull that I shotsubsequently at Simba— Two Rhino over-all, snout to tip-tail .... Height at shoulder (straight)Girth ,, ,,Circumference head (behind2nd horn)„ front horn at base .,, rear horn at base .Length of front horn . (1) Elmenteita. 12 ft. 8 ft. 7 ft. 0 ins. 4 ft. 4 ins. 2 ft. 2i ins. 1 ft. 5h ins. 2 ft. 4| ins. (2) Simba. 12 ft. ft. 6^ ft. 9I ins. 1 ft. 9 ins. 1 ft. 41 ft. 5| ins. A few days later I heard, for the third time, the ELMENTEITA IN FEBRUARY 143 curious liissing snort of a rliiiio. This time it \yasrepeated tlirice in rapid succession and close at hand,my two men at once whispering Kifaru. We wereat the moment after hippo, creeping along the narrowbelt of sharp rocks and lava which separates the deepwater of the hke from dense impenetrable jung
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Keywords: ., bookauthorchapmana, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookyear1908
