162 AFRICAN ADVENTURE STORIES 



We had our rifles ready in case one should 

 charge; they did not attempt to molest us, how- 

 ever, but simply seemed inquisitive. We were 

 unable to tell whether they fed on the vegeta- 

 tion at the bottom of the river, for they never 

 appeared with food in their mouths, although 

 they could easily have swallowed it before com- 

 ing to the surface. 



During the early settlement of Africa, when 

 the mail was distributed along the Nile by 

 canoes, these animals were so abundant, and 

 so many of them were truculent, that the mail- 

 carriers were provided with large, water-tight 

 rubber bags in which the mail-sacks were tied. 

 These in turn were fastened to wooden floats by 

 long lengths of stout cord, so that when a canoe 

 was capsized by a hippo, the sacks could be easily 

 located and recovered without much difficulty. 



An ugly old bull hippo which lived not far from 

 "Rhino Camp" was a terror to the natives. 

 It would lie in the edge of the papyrus and 

 charge out at passing boats. It had upset sev- 

 eral canoes and drowned one or more natives, 

 so the blacks appealed to the colonel to kill it, 

 but it wisely kept out of sight during our visit 

 in the vicinity. 



