46o A HUNTER'S WANDERINGS ch. 



of the head for just a couple of seconds or so, giving 

 no time for a deliberate aim. If she had been 

 unwounded we would have let her alone, but we 

 could see when she rose two white bullet-marks on 

 her, one through her nose and the other a little 

 behind her ear. By this time the dead sea-cows 

 had floated down to the tail of the pool, and all our 

 boys and Lo Magondi's followers were hard at work 

 cutting up the meat. Towards evening I crossed 

 the river where it ran in several channels through 

 the rocks and boulders at the bottom of the pool, 

 in order to try and circumvent the still surviving 

 cow. Waiting till she went down, I ran forwards 

 and took up a position as near as possible to the 

 place where she had last appeared ; I then watched 

 her for a time, and finding that she rose again and 

 again nearly in the same spot, I covered the place 

 with my rifle and when she next rose got the sight 

 just under her ear, and pulled the trigger as quickly 

 as possible. I heard the bullet strike, and saw that 

 I had killed her, for after raising her head once or 

 twice at short intervals and evidently with great 

 difficulty, she at last only just managed to throw 

 her nozzle above water, and then sank to rest for 

 good. This hippopotamus was a large cow, and, 

 like the others, very fat. I shot her with a single 

 450 Express by George Gibbs of Bristol, using an 

 ordinary Express bullet, the hollow plugged with a 

 peg of soft wood, and only backed by 1,2 drachms 

 of powder. We found on examination that I had 

 struck her just under and at the root of the ear, and 

 the solid end of the bullet had either penetrated to, 

 or driven splinters of bone into, her brain. I think 

 this a wonderful performance for a 450 Express 

 rifle ; with a solid bullet it would have been nothing, 



