254 STALKS ABROAD 



heads were found embedded in the hide. The natives 

 kill both hippo and rhino by this method, though it is 

 not a job I should care to take on myself, in spite 

 of the fact that I know of one man who killed a 

 rhinoceros with a "380 revolver and a single bullet ! 



I was writing in my tent that evening when I 

 heard a commotion outside, and Burton yelled to me to 

 bring a rifle. I rushed out, and found him stalking a 

 large green crocodile lying on an islet opposite the 

 camp. Before he could get a shot the noise made by 

 the porters frightened him off. A few minutes after, 

 Burton having gone off on his own account, a porter 

 came up and told me he had found one close by. I 

 went with him and found another big green brute lying 

 among some rushes in the middle of the river. His 

 head was turned away from us, so I could not get at 

 the vital spot just behind the skull. Though hard hit 

 he slid off into the river. Unless these horrible brutes 

 are paralysed by the first shot it is almost impossible 

 to recover them. 



A horrible smell, originally attributed to harte- 

 beest skulls, which had pervaded the camp for two 

 days, was traced to the skin of my bush pig ; so the 

 skin disappeared into the river and the smell went 

 with it. 



We had no ponies with us, having sent them back 

 to Fort Hall from Embu on account of the " fly." It 

 was, of course, much harder work without them. We 

 had been told it was an easy three days' march to 

 Fort Hall by the route we intended to take, but 



