210 TO LAKE NAIVASHA [ch. ix 



there is no sport whatever in kilHng them. But the 

 brain is small and the skull huge, and if they are any 

 distance off, and especially if the shot has to be taken 

 from an unsteady boat, there is ample opportunity to 

 miss. 



On the day we spent with the big row-boat in the 

 lagoons both Kermit and I had shots ; each of us hit, 

 but neither of us got his game. My shot was at the 

 head of a hippo facing me in a bay about a hundred 

 yards off, so that I had to try to shoot very low between 

 the eyes ; the water was smooth, and I braced my legs 

 well and fired offhand. I hit him, but was confident 

 that I had missed the brain, for he lifted slightly, and 

 then went under, nose last ; and when a hippo is shot in 

 the brain the head usually goes under nose first. An 

 exasperating feature of hippo-shooting is that, save in 

 exceptional circumstances, where the water is very 

 shallow, the animal sinks at once when killed outright, 

 and does not float for one or two or three hours, so that 

 one has to wait that length of time before finding out 

 whether the game has or has not been bagged. On this 

 occasion we never saw a sign of the animal after I fired, 

 and as it seemed impossible that in that situation the 

 hippo could get off unobser\'ed, my companions thought 

 1 had killed him. 1 thought not, and, unfortunately, 

 my judgment proved to be correct. 



Another day, in the launch, I did much the same 

 thing. Again the hippo was a long distance off, only 

 his head appearing, but unfortunately not in profile, 

 much the best position for a shot ; again I hit him, 

 again he sank, and, look as hard as we could, not a sign 

 of him appeared, so that everyone was sure he was dead ; 

 and again no body ever floated. But on this day Kermit 

 got his hippo. He hit it first in the head, merely a flesh 



