Cox, P.Z., 1900. Notes on Somaliland, part I. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 13 (1): 86-99
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| Location: |
Africa - Eastern Africa - Somalia |
| Subject: |
Distribution - Hunting |
| Species: |
Black Rhino |
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The events of the two days in question were not entirely furnished by the Rhino, but I may as well give the whole of them : -
On the 8th March, I had tracked up a pair of lions, and eventually bagged one of them.
March 9. Donaldson-Smith and I were up with the lark. D.S. was obliged to return to camp, leaving me to try my luck with the Rhino. I took his gun-bearer Abdi and my Midgan boy with me, and told my Arab camelman to follow our tracks with my riding camel. It was not long before I came on fresh droppings, and a few minutes later it became obvious that the Rhino had winded us for he turned down wind, and the tracks showed that he was going at a trot. Soon after 11 o'clock, Abdi being then on the track, we heard the cracking of a twig close by, and pulled up to listen, and a moment later I caught sight of a swaying, yellow mass, showing above a clamp of high grass, beneath the shade of a low overhanging mimosa bush, about 20 yards ahead. It was evidently the upper half of the Rhino's back, yellow with the sandy soil in which he had been rolling, and I thought I could make him out, standing almost facing me, with his near shoulder exposed, and his head, which I could not see, turned away to his right.. Presuming that he must have seen and heard us, as we had him, I aimed at the point of the shoulder and fired. There was a violent commotion in the grass ; he seemed to be trying to spin round, and I gave him the other barrel in much the same place, thinking that if he charged I could take my 'Paradox' from Abdi, who was by my side ; but when I turned to do so, there was no Abdi : he had done the vanishing trick, and at the same moment out burst the Rhino, puffing like a steam-engine, and coming straight for me. There was no time to reload, and I felt that I was in for 'beans' of sorts, but providentially the beast changed his mind at the last moment, swerved off to the right of me, and disappeared in the grass. I felt positive about my first shot and fairly so about my second, and so did not think he would go far, but it was impossible to see a dozen yards ahead owing to the height of the grass, and the only thing to be done, therefore, was to pick up the track again. I accordingly proceeded to collect the rest of my party and found the two of them hiding behind a big tussock of grass and endeavouring to squeeze themselves into mother earth, like a couple of wounded quail. When we had first come in view of the Rhino, the boy Mohamed was behind me and had no weapon with him, so that he had every right to make himself scarce, but I thought Abdi might have waited to give me the 'Paradox' and altogether I was not in the best of tempers, but after giving him a piece of my mind, in terms more forcible than polite, I hastened to resume the trail. But, alas, there was not a vestige of blood, and the beast had gone away. It was two mortal hours before we got in touch again. It was 2 o'clock before we came up with him again, Mahomed Midgan being on the trail at the time and I close on his heels, in the same heavy grass and bush jungle as before. There had been no sign to show that we were getting near and the trail apparently went straight forward, when, as we came up level with a small gap in the grass, to the left of our general direction, we suddenly saw the Rhino standing there, waiting for us. He charged out instantly, passing within a few feet of me and making for the Midgan, who on seeing him had darted to the right. Neglecting, from force of habit, I think, my comrade's recent counsel about the vulnerability of the Rhino's belly, I gave the latter a bullet in the shoulder as he passed me, and this caused him to pull up and turn his attention to me, but he had just given me time to dodge behind a friendly sapling, and evidently lost sight of me, for he began tearing round in circles, as if he knew not whom to devour. While employed in these gyrations he raised such clouds of dust from the loose red loamy soil under foot, that it was impossible to see him at all distinctly, but during one lucid moment I did manage to make him out dimly and got in another shot; and then the devil must have possessed me, for I again aimed at the shoulder. This time he did stumble, but was up again in a moment, and I lost sight of him in a whirlwind of blinding dust. Suddenly there was report from Mahomed's direction, and a moment later I heard the Rhino rattle past through the grass behind me, in the, direction from which we had come, but I could see nothing. The Midgan had been carrying my Paradox gun loaded, and presuming that he had fired it in self-defence, I thought no more about it, and on hearing the beast pass me, jumped up, and started in pursuit. After going some 200 yards, I met Abdi and my camel man just emerging from cover, and they told me that the Rhino had broken back in their direction, and had fallen to his knees as he passed, but that he had quickly recovered himself and gone on again. I fully expected therefore to find him hors de combat at no great distance, and we were just beginning to pick up his track when we heard loud groans coming from behind us, and then I bethought me of Mahomed Midgan and the shot I had heard. We ran back as quickly as we could in the direction from which the sounds were coming, and there we found the boy lying on the ground with a heavy mimosa bush on the top of him, groaning and looking very sorry for himself. He was soon extricated from the thorns, and on further examination I found that little or no damage was done. - - - I and Abdi hurried after the rhino.
The traveling was now easy enough ; there was plenty of blood, both on the track and high up on the grass, and when we got to a little clear ground we found that his off shoulder must be broken, as he was going on three legs and dragging the other. One would hardly have expected him to go far in this condition, but nevertheless on he went, mile after mile, hour after hour, and showed no signs of stopping. At 4 o'clock we were many miles from camp, and all more or less beat, having been going hard since the early morning; so I thought it best to knock off for the day. Accordingly we made tracks for home, getting in just before dark, tired and hungry. When I told Donaldson-Smith the events of the day, he at once remarked, ' Why didn't you aim for the belly ? If you had only done that at the second meeting, you would have had no more trouble.' I cursed myself for my perversity, and promising to take his advice on the morrow, I turned in early, after giving orders for two camels to be ready at daybreak with a couple of days' food for myself and four men. Next morning I was up betimes, and started off with my little lot to the place where we had left on tracking the night before, Donaldson-Smith lending me his .577, taking 7 drams, which he guarantees to be a 'rhino stopper,' and begging me to take his advice and aim for the middle of the belly, low down. The sun's hateful majesty was very much in evidence yesterday, and I expect touched me up, as I had a bad head on waking up, and so determined to ride my camel until the tracks became fresh. I took Mahomed Midgan up behind me. He was very stiff after his shaking of yesterday, too much so to walk with us; but he asked to be allowed to accompany me on the camel, so as to be in at the finish, a request which I thought showed very proper feeling! I also took his dog along with me, thinking he might be of use. It was marvelous how the Rhino had plodded on. He had come to a standstill once or twice during the night, but had never lain down, and was still going. One or two checks in the high grass brought us to noon. It was then about time to give the baggage camels a rest.
About 1-30 we got on the trail again. It soon led us into very heavy cover, high grass with clumps of tangled creeper thicket, in which it was impossible to see a dozen yards ahead - just the place in fact for a wounded Rhino to take sanctuary in. It was very difficult to keep the track, or move at all quietly, but Abdi was in form to-day, and we struggled along with as little crashing of branches as possible. The dog Jenaada too came in useful in this labyrinth ; he did not help us with the tracking, but he kept running on ahead and returning to us, and I thought he would very likely give us warning when we were coming to close quarters. We had been going thus for about an hour, when a violent sneeze hard by told us that our friend was wide awake and had winded us. We could see nothing on account of the dense cover, and in a moment all was still again, but Jenaada hjard the sound too, and ran off enquiringly to our left front to see what it was. He soon returned, however, and from the direction to which he faced, and the way he sniffed the air, we had little doubt that the Rhino had broken back. We could not follow directly as it was impossible to get through the network of undergrowth that intervened so I had to go back about 100 yards on our track, and then work round through a little clearing to my right, hoping thus to get a view. As a matter of fact I met the beast face to face, and he instantly put his head down and came for me, but a shot from the .577 as he came on, made him swerve off to my left, and then, remembering at last my comrade's advice, I let him have the left barrel in the belly, as he presented his broadside. This seemed to crumple him up altogether ; he slowed down at once, stopped after a few yards, stood quivering for a moment, and then sank on his knees and in a minute was hors de combat. On my going up to my gallant quarry, the reason for all the trouble he had given was apparent. The two shots which I had fired at our first meeting (when, as I say, I felt positive I was shooting as the point of his near shoulder) were nicely placed in the right buttock ! The second two bullets, fired at our second interview, when the Midgan was hurt, were both fairly in shoulder, but a little too far forward. The shoulderblade was shattered to pieces, but in spite of that he had traveled at least 15 miles, and had died game at the end of it. The caravan, which was not far off, came up on hearing my shots, and we were soon all at work on the carcase. I only wanted the head, but the boys were bent on taking slabs of skin for whips and shields, so that it was 5 pm by the time we had finished - too late to get back to headquarters.
Thus ended a sufficiently exciting tussle with a plucky foe, and I gathered one or two useful hints from it. First and foremast - always keep your second barrel in reserve till you see whether you are to expect a charge or not, and secondly - if you can get him broadside, the belly shot is more immediately effective than the shoulder, unless of course you are using a very powerful rifle ; the reason probably being that in this part of the Rhino's anatomy there is such a number of nerves and blood-vessels that a bullet planted therein causes him a violent shock to the system.
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Notes on Somaliland, part I
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