166 AFRICAN ADVENTURE STORIES 



On several occasions I saw hippos disappear 

 and later come up in the same place. 



Where large beds of papyrus grew on com- 

 paratively solid ground hippos had made wide, 

 well-worn paths all through it, and all along 

 the river bank, in some places at intervals 

 of every fifty yards or so, hippo trails emerged 

 from the water and led inland, where the ani- 

 mals had come out at night to feed on the 

 vegetation. Of course, these trails were used 

 also by other animals that came to drink, but 

 that hippos travelled them extensively was 

 proven by our finding hippo tracks two and 

 three miles from water. 



By being used generation after generation, 

 hippos had worn not trails but trenches ten feet 

 deep through the perpendicular clay-banks to 

 the water level. The sides of these trenches, 

 about three feet apart, were smooth and pol- 

 ished, caused by the animals' wet sides rubbing 

 against them. The only way such runs could 

 have been made was by constant use for years 

 while the Nile was rising and falling, until they 

 were finally worn level with the low-water mark. 



While the hippo spends most of the day 

 snoozing in the papyrus, floating on the surface 



