78 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



secutive shots, and Mr. F. J. Jackson has secured 

 as many as nine in ten shots. When the brain is 

 pierced, the beast sinks at once, and the hunter must 

 wait for some hours before the body rises and floats. 

 The time depends, of course, much upon the tem- 

 perature of the water. If the river is warm the 

 body may float in about three hours ; if cold, it may 

 take twice as long. 



The flesh of the hippo is dark red in colour, while 

 the flavour may be described as that of beef, with a 

 suggestion of pork, if such a thing could be imagined. 

 When fat and in good condition, the meat of a young 

 cow is excellent eating. The hide of these beasts, which 

 attains as much as two inches in thickness, is in great 

 demajid, chiefly for the manufacture of the whips 

 (sjamboks and koorbatches) of South and North 

 Africa. The fat is highly prized, and the Boers salt 

 down the meat and make a kind of coarse bacon of it. 

 The South African Dutch name for the hippopotamus 

 is zee-koe, and the animal is known as sea-cow by all 

 white men from the Cape to the Zambesi. The Zulu, 

 Matabele, and Zwazi name is imvubu, the Bechuana 

 name kubu, while the Swahilis know the animal as 

 kiboko, the Gallas as robi, and the Abyssinians as 

 kumare. A fair-sized hippo bull will stand about 

 4 feet at the shoulder, and measure from 14 to 

 15 feet in length. The tusks of old bulls attain 

 occasionally enormous dimensions. One from 

 Nyasaland, in the possession of Major P. W. Forbes, 

 measures no less than 38 inches over the curve. 

 Another fine tusk .reaches 37^ inches, and has a 



