THE TRUCULENT RHINOCEROS 113 inspecting each shadow, quiet-stepping and silent we moved, till we stood over the fresh bones of a waterbuck, not a day or two old. Not a monient was lost, but for hundreds of yards the thick bushes were walked through and nothing was seen.

Twenty-four hours later two lions appeared to a traveller downstream, and one of them failed to escape.

In certain localities on the Dinder are said to be the somewhat scarce rhinoceros, far more common in East Africa. It was well until recently not to stumble on them in the Sudan, for, while they were forbidden game, they are also of the most truculent character. The presence of mankind, made known to these pachyderms by a tell-tale breeze or casual noise, is sufficient to bring down the charge of the " heavy brigade " with purposeful intensity and exactness. Under such circumstances, even the game regulations of the Sudan must expect to be broken and asperities of officialdom softened. Not being numerous, these animals may be regarded as all but non-existent to the traveller here.

The " white " rhinoceros, whose colour is black, now all but extinct, is never seen here, though in the regions of the Bahr-el-Gebel, on the Congo side, they are still said to exist.

It was in the Zambesi Valley in 1895 that I saw the remains of, I believe, the last individual of its kind that was killed in South Africa, far in the north of Mashonaland. The front horn of this 8