164 AFRICAN ADVENTURE STORIES 



time. Suddenly a hippo rose from the water 

 close astern, and, throwing its body into the air, 

 it fell on the boat, capsizing and sinking the 

 shell with its weight. The occupants were all 

 dumped into the lake, but as soon as the boat 

 reappeared they swam to it and finally managed 

 to reach the near-by shore. The hippo did not 

 return to the attack, however, and no damage 

 was done other than the battering in of the 

 stern of the craft. The danger arising from a 

 hippo capsizing a boat is not so much from the 

 hippo itself as it is from the chance of one of 

 the unfortunate crew being picked up by a 

 crocodile. Many casualties of this kind have 

 happened. 



While out hunting crocodiles with the colonel 

 and Kermit near "Rhino Camp," one afternoon, 

 we suddenly cut across a little bay that was 

 completely hidden by the tall, thick papyrus, 

 and, as the boatmen allowed the boat to drift 

 with the current, the herd of five hippos that 

 was basking in tne sun at the far end of the 

 bay did not hear or see us until we were within 

 fifty feet of them. The surprise was mutual, 

 for, while the bay was not unknown to us and 

 we had expected to see crocodiles in it, we did 



