The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1875-10-07
KILLING q Rhin0cer0s,

SOUTHERN AFRICA is of all countries
the one where the hunter finds the greatest
abundance of large game The elephant,
I the lion, and the immense rhinoceros still
abound, though rapidly diminishing in
number before the guns Of the sports
men. OF these animals the most dan.
gerous is the rhinoceros, because he does
not wait to be attacked, but charges on
| any human beng who comes in sight.
Anecdotes of the f~erocity, bad temper
and cunning of this animal might be told
! sufficient to fill q volume. They will
wait in the thick jungle till you almost
| touch them, and then rush ont at you.
| When they do catch an unfortunate man
they knock him down and knead him
with their feet until nothing but a shape.
! less mass remains, uttering all day their
shriIl sQueaI of rage. Hon. W. ID. Drum
mond relates an unfortunate experience OF
this kind. On a journey the attention
! of this party was called to the presence
! OF upetyane Gas the natives call the rhino-
Ccros) by a flock of rhinocHos-birds
lowering over a thicket, and contrary to
his advice his companions determined to
hunt it.
We went on, and in scarcely five min.
utes I saw it, having already heard il
snorting like a steam-engine, t~rottine
| along, tossing its head and looking like
mischief p~ersonified, having evidently got
! the wind Of some OF US, and being quite
as anxious to find us as VIC it. 1t was
| about fifteen yards Off, and ] instantly let
drive with both barrels into its shoulder,
| Swinging as l did so INTO the tree under
which | was.
My unlucky companion, who was at
a little distance on II side, camehunning
| toward the shots and absolutely met the
brute face to face. He at once fred and
turned to run, but it was too late, and he
was caught on the spot, thrown up with a
! single toss, which must probably have
! stunned him, and was then trampled out
of all scmblance to humanity by the
blood thirsty brute.
l could do nothing for my gun-bearel
had disappeared, seeking safety in some
! other spot, and ! found that | had not a
single cartridge left; but after a minute !
| could stand the inaction no longer, and
I getting down from the tree unperceived l
| stole away and as oon as l was out OF
reach shouted to the others.
Two Of them 0 o came up, when VIC
, went back to the spotuntil we got sight of
the brute, still trampling and squealing,
when, kneeling down, we fired at it to-
gether. 1t was only, however, after re.
peated shots that we succeeded in finish.
ing it.
TIE sea-serpent narrowly escaped being
h%arpooned a few days ago. Capt. Church,
of Yarmouth, saw him chasing porpoises
and swallowing them down like minnows.
He sent a harpoon into the beast reptile
or mammaD. and had the satisfaction of
seeing him run off with two coils of line
and two kegs (empty, doubtless), leaving
a white wake behind him for miles. He
was afterward seen picking his teeth with
he harpoon off Cape H atteras.
An Englishman says that Americans
are blowing about a couple of fast.mail
trains which would not be accorded a
single remark in England. And yet
blowing is a distinctive English trait, and
an English engineer can no more run a
train from Victoria station to the Crystal
Palace without beaming all over in pride
at the feat than a peacock can refrain
from spreading its tail out in show.
JOHN WISE, the ballOonist, who has kept
so quiet since the failure of the projected
transatlantic air trip that a newspaper IN
advertently spoke of him as dead, writes
to 4pplstons' Journal to say that he is
L. a.A u4.l q lol:a.rar In tho air crrront