un lies under the
tree.' The man immediately descended from the tree, loaded the gun, and
approaching the rhinoceros he fired and wounded it severely in the jaw.
The animal was stunned, and dropped on the spot. Thinking that it was
dead, we all descended fearlessly and collected round it; and the man
who had fired was very proud, and was giving directions to the others,
when of a sudden the animal began to recover, and kicked with his
hind-legs. Henrick told us all to run for our lives, and set us the
example. The rhinoceros started up again, and singling out the
unfortunate man who had got down and fired at it, roaring and snorting
with rage, thundered after him.

"The man, perceiving that he could not outrun the beast, tried the same
plan as the other hunter did when the rhinoceros charged him: stopping
short, he jumped on one side, that the animal might pass him; but the
brute was not to be balked a second time; he caught the man on his horn
under the left thigh, and cutting it open as if it had been done with an
axe, tossed him a dozen yards up in the air. The poor fellow fell
facing the rhinoceros, with his legs spread; the beast rushed at him
again, and ripped up his body from his stomach to almost his throat, and
again tossed him in the air. Again he fell heavily to the ground. The
rhinoceros watched his fall, and running up to him trod upon and pounded
him to a mummy. After this horrible tragedy, the beast limped off into
a bush. Henrick then crept up to the bush; the animal dashed out again,
and would certainly have killed another man, if a dog had not turned it.
In turning short round upon the dog, the bone of its fore-leg, which
had been half broken through by Henrick's first shot, snapped in two,
and it fell, unable to recover itself, and was then shot dead."

"A very awkward customer, at all events," observed the Major. "I
presume a leaden bullet would not enter?"

"No, it would flatten against most parts of his body. By the bye, I saw
an instance of a rhinoceros having been destroyed by that cowardly brute
the hyena."

"Indeed!"

"Yes, patience and perseverance on the hyena's part effected the work.
The rhinoceros takes a long while to turn round, and the hyena attacked
him behind, biting him with his powerful jaws above the joint of the
hind-leg, and continued so to do, till he had severed all the muscles,
and the animal, forced from pain to lie down, was then devoured as you
may say aliv