. When at last it decided upon Brock, it gave me the
chance I had been waiting for. I fired instantly at the hollow between
neck and shoulder; the brute dropped at once, and save for one or two
convulsive kicks of its stumpy legs as it lay half on its back, it
never moved again. The second rhino proved to be a well-grown youngster
which showed considerable fight as we attempted to approach its fallen
comrade. We did not want to kill it, and accordingly spent about two
hours in shouting and throwing stones at it before at last we succeeded
in driving it away. We then proceeded to skin our prize; this, as may
be imagined, proved rather a tough job, but we managed it in the end,
and the trophy was well worth the pains I had taken to add it to my
collection.

CHAPTER XVIII

LIONS ON THE ATHI PLAINS

Shortly after I took charge at railhead we entered the Kapiti Plain,
which gradually merges into the Athi Plain, and, indeed, is hardly to
be distinguished from the latter in the appearance or general character
of the country. Together they form a great tract of rolling downs
covered with grass, and intersected here and there by dry ravines,
along the baked banks of which a few stunted trees--the only ones to be
seen--struggle to keep themselves alive. In all this expanse there is
absolutely no water in the dry season, except in the Athi River (some
forty miles away) and in a few water-holes known only to the wild
animals. The great feature of the undulating plains, however, and the
one which gives them a never-failing interest, is the great abundance
of game of almost every conceivable kind. Here I myself have seen lion,
rhinoceros, leopard, eland, giraffe, zebra, wildebeeste, hartebeeste,
waterbuck, wart-hog, Granti, Thomsoni, impala, besides ostriches,
greater and lesser bustard, marabout, and a host of other animals and
birds too numerous to name; while along the Athi and close to its banks
may be found large numbers of hippo and crocodiles. At the time I was
there, these great plains also formed the principal grazing ground for
the immense herds of cattle owned by the Masai. I am very glad to say
that the whole of this country on the south side of the railway as far
as the boundary of German East Africa, from the Tsavo River on the east
to the Kedong Valley on the west, is now a strictly protected Game
Reserve; and so long, as this huge expanse is thus maintained as a
sanctuary, there can be no danger of any of t