ving pictures of a rhino charge. Mr. Akeley had
a machine and our plan of action was simple. We would first locate the
rhino, usually somnolent under a thorn tree or browsing soberly out in
the open. We would then get to the leeward of him and slowly advance the
machine; Mr. Akeley in the middle and Stephenson and I on each side with
our double-barreled cordite rifles. In case the charge became too
serious to escape we hoped to be able to turn him or kill the rhino with
our four bullets. If we were unsuccessful in doing so--well, we had to
manage the situation by jumping.

Our first experience was most thrilling, chiefly because we expected a
charge. We thought all rhinos charged, as per the magazine articles, and
so prepared for busy doings. A rhino cow and half-grown calf were
discovered on a distant hillside. We stopped in a ravine to adjust the
picture machine and then crept cautiously up the hill until we were
within about seventy yards of the unsuspecting pair. Then the rhino
birds began to flutter and chatter and the two beasts began to sniff
nervously. Finally they turned toward us, with tails erect and noses
sniffing savagely. Now for the charge, we thought, for it was considered
an absolute certainty that a rhino cow accompanied by its calf would
always attack. We moved forward a few yards, clapped our hands to show
where we were, and their attitude at once became more threatening. They
rushed backward and forward a couple of times and faced us again.

By this time we knew that they saw us and our fingers were within the
trigger guards. It was agreed that, if they charged, they should be
allowed to come within forty feet before we fired, thus giving the
picture machine time to get a good record. The situation was intense
beyond description, and seconds seemed hours. When they started trotting
toward us we thought the fatal moment had come, but instead of
continuing the "charge," they swung around and trotted swiftly off in an
opposite direction. As far as we could see them they trotted swiftly and
with the lightness of deer, sometimes zigzagging their course, but
always away from us. The charge had failed in spite of all our efforts
to provoke it. The whistling and hand-clapping which we had hoped would
give them our location without doubt had merely served to tell them the
way not to go.

The moving picture record of a "charging rhino" would have been a
brilliant success but for one thing--the rhino refused