Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1888-09-06
SHOOTING A RHINOCEROs.
Allan Quaterm ain Describes N Hunt
I'm south Africa.

Allan Qunterm ain Describes n Hunt
I'm south Africn.
Taking my eight-bore and half
dozen spare cartridges in my pocket. l
made detour. and reaching the ant
heap in safety lay down. For a NOM
ont the wind had dropped. but pres
emily gentle puff of air passed over
me and blow on toward the rhinocer-
Gus. BY the way. 1 wonder what it is
that smells so strong about man? Is
1t his body or his breath? l have never
been able to make out, but saw some-
where the other day that in the duck
decOys the man who is working the
ducks holds little piece of burning
turf before his mouth, and that if he
does this they connot smell him, which
looks as though it were the breath.
Well, whatever IL was about me that
attracted his attention, the rhinoceros
soon smelt me. and within half an
minute after the puff of wind had passed
he was up and turning aroundto get his
head up wind. There he stood for a
few seconds and shifted. and then he
began to move. first of all at trot.
then as the scent grew stronger at q
furious gallop. On he came, snorting
like runaway engine, with his
tail stuck straight up in the air. If no
had seen me lie down there he could
not have made a better line. 1t was
rather nervous work. can tell you,
lying there waiting for his onslaught,
for he looked like a mountain of flesh.
/ determined. however. not to fire until
/ could plainly see his eye. for l think
that rule always gives one the right
distance for big game. So l rested my
rifle on the ant-heap and waited for
him. kneeling. At last, when he was
about 40 yards away, saw that the
time had come. aud, aiming straight
for the middle of the chest pulled.
Thud went the heavy bullet and
with a tremendous snort over rolled
the rhinoceros beneath its shock.
just like a shot rabbit But if | had
thought that he was done for l was
mistaken, for in another second he was
up and coming for me as hard as ever
only with his head held low. l watt
ell till he was within ten yards. in the
hope that he would expose his chest.
but he would do nothing OF the sort
So j had just TO fire at his head with
the left barrel and take my chances.
Well, as luck would have it. of course
the animal put its horn in the way of
the bullet, which cut clean through it
about three inches above the root,
and then glanced off into space After
that things got rather serious. My gun
was empty and the rhinoceros was
rapidly arriving-so rapidly. indeed.
that / had come to the conclusion that
l had better make way for him. Ac-
cordingly l jumped to my feet and
ran to the right as hard as l could
go. AS | did so he arrived full tilt,
knocked my friendly ant-heap flat, and
for tho second time that day went a
most magnificent cropper. This gave
ne a few seconds start. and Iran down
wind-my word. / did run. Unfortu-
nately. however, my modest retreat
was observed. and the rhinoceros, as
soon as he got his legs again. set to
work TO run after me. Now, no man
on earth can run as fast as an irrl-
tated rhinoceros can gallop. and knew
that he must soon catch me up. But
having some slight experience of this
sort of thing. luckily for myself kept
my head. and as fled | managed to
open my rifle. get the old cartridges out
and put two fresh ones in. To do this
had TO steady M pace little. and
by the time that 1 had snapped the
rifle TO heard him snorting and thun-
dering away within few PAGES of my
back i stopped. and as l did so rapid
ly cooked the rifle and slewod round
upon my heel. BY this time the brute
was within six or seven yards of me,
but luckily his head was up. lifted
the rifle and fired at him. 1t was a
snap shot and the bullst struck him in
the chest within three inches of the
first. and found its way into his lungs.
1t did not stop him, however; so all
could do was to bound 10 one side.
which l did with surprising activity.
and as he brushed past me fire the
other barrel into his side. That did for
him. The ball passed in behind the
shoulder and right through the heart.
He fell over on to his side. gave one
most awful squeal-a dozen pigs could
not have made so much noise-and
promptly died, keeping his wicked eyes
wide open all the time.
As for me. blew my nose. and 60
ing up to the rbinoceros. sat on his
head and reflected that had had a
capital mornings shooting Rider