SEA-COW SHOOTING. 153 



ieep, and long still bend of the river, I disturbed the 

 game I sought. 



They were lying in their sandy beds among the rank 

 reeds at the river's margin, and on hearing me gallop- 

 ing over the gravelly shingle between the bank and the 

 reeds, the deposit of some great flood, they plunged into 

 their native strong-hold in dire alarm, and commenced 

 blowing, snorting, and uttering a sound very similar to 

 that made by the musical instrument called a serpent. 

 It was a fairish place for an attack ; so, divesting my- 

 self of my leather trowsers, I ordered my after-riders 

 to remain utterly silent, and then crept cautiously for- 

 ward, determined not to fire a shot until I had thor- 

 oughly overhauled the herd to see if it did not contain 

 a bull, and at all events to secure, if possible, the very 

 finest head among them. 



The herd consisted of about fourteen hippopotami ; 

 ten of these were a little further down the stream than 

 the other four. Having carefully examined these ten, 

 I made out two particular hippopotami decidedly larg- 

 er than all the others. I then crept a little distance 

 up the river behind the reeds, to obtain a view of the 

 others. They were two enormous old cows, with two 

 large calves beside them. The old ones had exactly 

 the same size of head as the two best cows below ; I 

 accordingly chose what I thought the best of these two, 

 and, making a fine shot at the side of her head, at once 

 disabled her. She disappeared for a few seconds, and 

 then came floundering to the surface, and continued 

 swimming round and round, sometimes diving, and 

 then reappearing with a loud splash and a blowing 

 noise, always getting slowly down the river, until I re- 

 attacked and finished her a quarter of a mile further 

 down, about an hour after. The other sea-cows wero 



G2 



