ching his back through the
skin: perhaps the lion had been scared by the rheims, or on discovering
his spare condition, had preferred the buffalo.

HUNTING THE WHITE RHINOCEROS,

LION, BUFFALO, AND GIRAFFE.

Upon the 9th, says Mr. Cumming, it rained unceasingly throughout the
day, converting the rich soil on which we were encamped into one mass of
soft, sticky clay. In the forenoon, fearing the rain would continue so
as to render the valley (through which we must pass to gain the firmer
ground) impassible, I ordered my men to prepare to march, and leave the
tent with its contents standing, the point which I wished to gain being
distant only about five hundred yards. When the oxen were inspanned,
however, and we attempted to move, we found my tackle, which was old, so
rotten from the effects of the rain, that something gave way at every
strain. Owing to this and to the softness of the valley, we labored on
till sundown, and only succeeded in bringing one wagon to its
destination, the other two remained fast in the mud in the middle of the
valley. Next morning, luckily, the weather cleared up, when my men
brought over the tent, and in the afternoon the other two wagons.

We followed up the banks of the river for several days, with the usual
allowance of sport. On the 16th we came suddenly upon an immense old
bull muchocho rolling in mud. He sprang to his feet immediately he saw
me, and, charging up the bank, so frightened our horses, that before I
could get my rifle from my after-rider he was past us. I then gave him
chase, and, after a hard gallop of about a mile, sprang from my horse
and gave him a good shot behind the shoulder. At this moment a cow
rhinoceros of the same species, with her calf, charged out of some
wait-a-bit thorn cover, and stood right in my path. Observing that she
carried an unusually long horn, I turned my attention from the bull to
her, and, after a very long and severe chase, dropped her at the sixth
shot. I carried one of my rifles, which gave me much trouble, that not
being the tool required for this sort of work, where quick loading is
indispensable.

After breakfast I sent men to cut off the head of this rhinoceros, and
proceeded with Ruyter to take up the spoor of the bull wounded in the
morning. We found that he was very severely hit, and having followed the
spoor for about a mile through very dense thorn cover, he suddenly
rustled out of the bushes close ahead of us, accompanied b