214 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



Another day, in the launch, I did much the same thing. 

 Again the hippo was a long distance off, only his head 

 appearing, but unfortunately not in profile, much the best 

 position for a shot; again I hit him; again he sank and, 

 look as hard as we could, not a sign of him appeared, so 

 that every one was sure he was dead; and again no body 

 ever floated. But on this day Kermit got his hippo. He 

 hit it first in the head, merely a flesh wound; but the startled 

 creature then rose high in the water and he shot it in the 

 lungs. It now found difficulty in staying under, and con- 

 tinually rose to the surface with a plunge like a porpoise, 

 going as fast as it could toward the papyrus. After it we 

 went, full speed, for once in the papyrus we could not have 

 followed it; and Kermit finally killed it, just before it 

 reached the edge of the swamp, and, luckily, where the 

 water was so shallow that we did not have to wait for it to 

 float, but fastened a rope to two of its turtle-like legs, and 

 towed it back forthwith. 



There were otters in the lake. One day we saw two 

 playing together near the shore; and at first we were all 

 of us certain that it was some big water snake. It was not 

 until we were very close that we made out the supposed 

 one big snake to be two otters; it was rather interesting, 

 as giving one of the explanations of the stories that always 

 appear about large water snakes, or similar monsters, ex- 

 isting in almost every lake of any size in a wild country. 

 On another day I shot another near shore; he turned over 

 and over, splashing and tumbling; but just as we were 

 about to grasp him, he partially recovered and dived to 

 safety in the reeds. 



On the second day we went out in the launch I got 



