HUNTING THE HIPPOPOTAMI. 389 



making a fine shot at the side of her head, I 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 reattacked and finished her a quarter of a mile 

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

 now greatly alarmed, and only occasionally put up their heads, 

 showing but a small part, remaining but a few seconds at a time. 

 I, however, managed to select one of the three remaining 

 ones, and, making a most perfect shot, I sent a bullet crash- 

 ing into her brain. This caused instantaneous death, and 

 she sank to the bottom. I then wounded two more sea-cows 

 in the head, both of which I lost. The others were so alarmed 

 and cunning that it was impossible to do anything with them. 

 The one I had first shot was now resting with half her body 

 above water on a sandbank in the Limpopo, at the mouth of the 

 other river Lepalala, which was broad, clear, and rapid. From 

 this resting-place I started her with one shot in the shoulder 

 and another in the side of the head ; this last shot set her in 

 motion once more, she commenced struggling in the water in 

 the most extraordinary manner, disappearing for a few se- 

 conds and then coming up like a great whale setting the whole 

 river in an uproar. Presently she took away down the stream, 

 holding to the other side, but, again returning, I finished her 

 with a shot in the middle of the forehead. This proved a 

 most magnificent specimen of the female of the wondrous hip- 

 popotamus, an animal with which I was extremely surprised 

 and delighted. She far surpassed the brightest conceptions 

 I had formed of her, being a larger, a more lively, and in 

 every way a more interesting animal than certain writers had 

 led me to expect. On securing this fine sea-cow I immedi- 

 ately cut off her head and placed it high and dry : this was a 

 work of considerable difficulty for four men. 



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