The Sauk Centre herald., 1909-07-08

Soo44WS ugly brute than the
rhinoceros. T n 8
animal has buried more hunters than
all other big game combined. 1t
seems to be the hired assassin Of the
jungle. Its success as a homicide IL
not due to the fact that 1t seeks Its
victim, but because its victim falls
over it. If the rhino knows that there
is an enemy about, it will try to get
away without being seen. II, on the
other hand, 1t thinks that by keeping
still it will be passed unnoticed, 1t
stays as silent and motionless ~
. Gibraltar, its little hog eyes watching
the direction OF the noise and its nose
smiling the air. Should an enemy
show up suddenly in the jungle the
rhino charges like a flash, nose down
and horns leveled like swords for the
thrust, it's huge bulk crushing through
the brush like an express train. 1t IL
always a fight to the death, for .
rhinoceros once in a fight wins or
dies, and 1t most ly wins, If 1t is not
confronted with an express rifle in
the hands of a cool, good shot. It
was the express in the hands of .
cool shot that saved me In the en-
counter related here.
We had been out nearly year and
wereF returning to civilization, such
as 1t Is on the East African coast.
with good stock of ivory. My part
ner, Jappie de Villiers, well-known
Boer hunter, had fever and was ex-
pected to die at any moment. He
had been carried 800 miles from the
interior in a hammock. If de Villiers
had not been i'll l would not be alive
to-day.
We were pitching camp at the
Kagera river on one of these mex
plicable barren patches that are scat
tered like freckles over the face Of
the tropical forests. The sun was
setting and the sky blazed IKE tho
mouth of a foundry furnace. The
smoke of the newly made camp fires
rose slowly in the damp air and hung
lazily about the tree tops; clouds Of
flies and mosquitoes followed every
living thing and the lizards looked in
quisitively down from their perches
in the great vines that reached out
like the tentacles of a mighty octopus
holding everything in its grasp. The
river with its waxy water flowers and
gliding crocodiles was on one side Of
us, the tropical jungle, mysterious
and fascinating in all its vivid and ex-
travagant luxury, was on the other.
hung our rifles on the limbs of the
trees which supported my sick COM
rade's hammock. The porters were
collecting drywood for the night fires
as I watched a monster crocodile in
the water making a futile effort to
swallow a friend nearly as big as It.
self. A party of natives from a near
by village was skinning a beast we
had shot for food. In another group
my boys" were opening the bundles
of camping necessities. A loud grunt.
followed by Somalfs cry, came
from the jungle side Of the camp, and
the next instant the screeching So
mali, followed by huge rhinoceros,
burst through the underground. The
Somali ran for a tree. He tripped
over an ammunition box, the rhino
passed him in it's blind fury and
charged down on the clump Of por'
lters, scattering. them like chaff be-
fore the wind One was crushed
down. Another who had stumbled
rose to run, the maddened beast
charged and thrust its horn through
his back, battered him against tree
and then hurled him in the air.