. On safari : big game hunting in British East Africa, with studies in bird-life . g our two kongoni (except headsand skins), we were soon ready ; but meantime Kifaru,having finished his meal, slowly turned, and still moreslowly strolled along the mountain-side. The thoughtoccurred to me, watching, that perchance he had performedthat selfsame walk on the morn of Waterloo. The descent into the intervening gorge and thepassage thereof were of the roughest—broken rocks allintercepted with dongas and terrible brushwood ; andere we emerged the rhino had disappeared. In vain wesought. To the right,
. On safari : big game hunting in British East Africa, with studies in bird-life . g our two kongoni (except headsand skins), we were soon ready ; but meantime Kifaru,having finished his meal, slowly turned, and still moreslowly strolled along the mountain-side. The thoughtoccurred to me, watching, that perchance he had performedthat selfsame walk on the morn of Waterloo. The descent into the intervening gorge and thepassage thereof were of the roughest—broken rocks allintercepted with dongas and terrible brushwood ; andere we emerged the rhino had disappeared. In vain wesought. To the right, in the direction he had gone,a great ravine rent the hill. This was choked witheuphorbia, cactus and other humanly-impenetrable HUNTING ON THE SIMBA KIYER 243 shrubs. Had he entered that, he was lost; but secondthoughts negatived the j^robability, for such are not thespots beloved of rhino. Anxious moments succeededwhen, on the stony ground, no spoor could be discovered,and I directed Yama to proceed direct to the thorn-tree On our wav thither we struck of the oriQ;inal AVOOD-HOOPOE {Irrisor erythrorhynchus).Brilliant iu lustrous reflections of deep greens and purples. the three-toed spoor, and, following this, soon ascertainedthat (as anticipated) the animal had shunned the ravine ;turning to his left, he had crossed over the mountain-ridoe, or neck, hio-h above. Beyond this was a saucer-shaped depression full oflow trees and bush, fairly thick—not a comfortable spotfor tracking, as we could rarely see over twenty , presently, we walked right into the rhino in his 244 ON SAFARI boudoir ; we stood actually at seven yards before detect-ing liim within. His cliamber was a natural arbour,four-square, formed by grouped trees whose foliageoverarched it above, while green brushwood walled it inbelow. Though so near, we could not distinguish the positionof the beast—it was merely the indication of a darkmass that we saw ; and for several trying minutes westood,
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Keywords: ., bookauthorchapmana, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookyear1908
