-^ 



The Hippopotamus 



the propensity sliown l^oth l)y hippopotamuses and croco- 

 diles to overturning- them. Never shall I forget the 

 feeling with which I once saw two great hippopotamus- 

 heads emerge from the water a few feet only from my 

 fragile little vessel in midstream. Only once have croco- 

 diles seized hold of my boat and overturned it, while 

 hippopotamuses have never even attempted to do so. 



I have had many encounters with " viboko " on the 

 Rufu River, which for years I had known to be impractic- 

 able for boats, before the fact was authoritatively stated. 

 I was one of the first European hunters to go through 

 the woods along its banks. 



The animals are fond of sleeping upon islands in 

 rivers and lakes. You often find sleeping-places on 

 these islands which seem to have been thus in use tor 

 ages. Hippopotamuses nianage to clamber up even quite 

 steep banks. Often you see, leading down to the river, 

 deep grooves worn by them out ot the soft stony soil 

 in the course of countless years. At such spots on the 

 rivers Bowing into the Victoria Nyanza I tound heavy 

 snares set up by the natives, in passing which the animals 

 would be stabbed in the back by poisoned wooden stakes. 

 Quickly succumbing to the poison, their dead bodies 

 would soon rise to the surface of the river, in which 

 they had sought refuge. 



Very curious is the habit the "el makaunin " have 

 of whisking their dung up on bushes with their bristly 

 tails. The bushes thus covered serve as landmarks (as 

 in the case of other mammals) and enable individual 

 animals, especially males and females, to find each other. 



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