" HIPPOS " 163 



While rowing or paddling on the rivers and 

 lakes of Africa I was many times very close 

 to hippos, but always escaped being attacked. 

 Just why these animals, which are considered the 

 least dangerous of the three great African mam- 

 mals, should attack a craft is somewhat puzzling. 

 While a few of them, no doubt, do charge with 

 malice aforethought, even without first being 

 molested, from all accounts it would seem that 

 the greater number do so for sport, or lack of 

 employment. 



It is seldom that a hippo actually demolishes 

 a boat or kills its occupants. The few that do 

 charge simply bump into a craft and knock a 

 hole in it with their snout, or rise beneath it and 

 turn it over, and then go on about their business, 

 if it can be said that a hippo has any business. 



A few days before our arrival at Butiaba, on 

 Lake Albert, a hippo had attacked a small 

 steel boat and driven its tusks through the bot- 

 tom, sinking it at once. 



Captain Hutchinson, of the Uganda Marine, 

 told me of an experience he had with a hippo 

 while hunting on Lake Albert. He had just 

 left the landing in a small wooden rowboat 

 and did not expect to see any hippos for some 



