294 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS 



We frequently found single hippo dwelling in tiny pools, 

 usually surrounded by marsh, miles away from the nearest 

 lake or river, and sometimes so high among the hills that 

 the animals must have done some real climbing to get to 

 them. On one occasion while on the Uasin Gishu we were 

 camped by a reed-covered marsh with very little open water 

 in it; we had no idea there was a hippo anywhere near; but 

 when some of the men went to get water, after nightfall, 

 they were threatened and thoroughly frightened by a hippo, 

 and when we white men turned out to see what had hap- 

 pened, we could hear the hippo in the darkness snorting 

 and gambolling heavily about us, as we walked through the 

 wet meadow of short grass. At night they were always 

 very bold, and on their rambles came close to camp; or, if 

 we were in boats, they would snort and plunge as they 

 examined us with fearless curiosity close alongside. On 

 the Nile there were masses of a little surface-floating plant 

 which we called water-cabbage, Pistia stratoides. Evidently 

 when the hippos went ashore for a nocturnal walk they car- 

 ried these plants with them, supposedly on their backs; for 

 in the morning we would sometimes find them drying in 

 the hot sun miles inland. In spite of their clumsy build 

 hippos trot and gallop fast. Their feet are kept far apart by 

 the wide body and make paths with a ridge down the mid- 

 dle, so as to be recognizable at once. They swim well, but 

 go at their greatest speed when they can gallop along the 

 bottom in shallow water. They can stay under water a 

 long time, and when they come to the surface they may 

 send little jets of spray from their nostrils. We were puz- 

 zled by the noises they made. Occasionally at night we 

 heard them roar, in a way that we thought must be done 



