BRITISH EAST AFRICA 253 



grotesquely pathetic fashion, as it was hurried down 

 by the rush of water. 



I shot a second one, which vanished in swirls of 

 reddened foam. It reappeared a few yards lower 

 down, wobbled uneasily for a little, and then remained 

 stuck on a mudbank. 



The animal Burton had killed was carried for 

 nearly a mile down the river, and could be seen 

 underneath the opposite bank. The river was much 

 too deep and swift for it to be retrieved, and after 

 trying the depth of water and wandering discon- 

 solately up the bank we had to give it up as a bad 

 job. Mine was fast where we had left it, and as there 

 was an opportune spit, composed of rocks and sand, 

 which ran out almost to where it was lying, we had 

 a comparatively easy task to rescue it. I say we, 

 though I had but little to do with it myself, beyond 

 standing on the bank and taking photographs. 

 Burton, being seized with a sudden and violent desire 

 to get thoroughly wet, waded out with Hassan and a 

 string of porters. He then tied a rope round the 

 hippo's creasy neck. 



Whilst they were so engaged another hippo 

 appeared in the pool above them and I anticipated 

 some fun, but he vanished somewhere up-stream and 

 we never saw him again. It took nearly three hours 

 to get my victim in to the bank, and once there I 

 hastily returned to camp as essence of hippo is not a 

 scent for which one hankers ! 



Whilst skinning her (for it was a cow) two arrow 



