A FIGHT WITH "HIPPOS" 191 



spears were hurled into his body. Then, as 

 the men in the canoes hurriedly tossed the 

 wooden floats overboard, he disappeared be- 

 neath the surface. For a moment the floats 

 bobbed up and down; then, with a jerk that 

 pulled some of them under water, they started 

 off. 



"At first the hippo swam, or ran along the 

 bottom of the river so fast that the canoemen 

 could hardly keep up with him. He was so far 

 below the surface that he did not make a rip- 

 ple, and had it not been for the floats there 

 would have been no way of telling the crea- 

 ture's whereabouts. 



"Some of the canoes followed close behind; 

 others hurried ahead of the buoys and kept 

 about twenty feet on either side of the spot 

 where the hippo would soon come to the sur- 

 face. Since enough of the buoyed spears had 

 been attached to the animal to mark his posi- 

 tion, the spearmen now armed themselves with 

 free lances; in the bow of each craft stood a 

 stalwart fellow ready to plunge a weapon into 

 the hippo the instant he appeared. 



"At that point the river was about three hun- 

 dred yards wide. For some distance the animal 



