Encounter with Vicious Hippopotami. 323 



elands down to the tiny duiker. There were but 

 three trees, at some distance apart, and, bearing in 

 mind the evil repute of the hippoos, I made for the 

 largest. As the men refused to follow me, I slung 

 the Express over my shoulder, and carried the big- 

 bore in my hand. It is called the "Equatorial." 

 I directed the man with the Paradox to go to the 

 next tree and remain there, either at the bottom or 

 up in the branches, but ready to hand it to me if I 

 required it. The ground was execrable, but I stum- 

 bled along, reached the long grass, and with some 

 difficulty got to the tree, but found I was still some 

 way from the water. I tried to climb the tree to 

 take a view around, but found it too prickly, so 

 resting the single barrel against the trunk, I com- 

 menced to form a pathway by treading dow r n the 

 grass, so as to have a means of retreat should one 

 be necessary. The Express I kept in hand at full 

 cock, ready for any emergency. It was not far to 

 the water's edge, but it took me fully an hour to get 

 there, for the stems of the grass were like those of 

 large reeds, not easy to break or to tread down 

 quietly. Silently as I had moved, as I thought, I 

 must have made some noise, for on pushing aside 

 the last of the grass I saw, not ten paces off, just 

 emerging from the deep water, the hideous head of 

 an enormous bull hippopotamus. Our eyes met. I 

 made a step backwards, intending to get behind 

 the tree, but he rushed at me at once, opening out 

 his cavernous mouth, exposing a horrible set of 

 ivories and- bellowing with rage. Although in his 

 depth, fortunately the water was up to his middle, 

 so his progress was laboured and not very rapid. I 



