xii THE HIPPOPOTAMUS 247 



of this was at the least 3 or 4 inches thick, and happily it was a 

 tough quality of wood. This heavy canoe was 27 feet in length, 

 but when approaching a bank of high reeds, a hippopotamus 

 charged from beneath, and struck the bottom with such force that 

 the canoe was actually lifted partially from the water ; had it been 

 an ordinary boat, the bottom would have been knocked out, and 

 we should have been capsized. 



Dr. Livingstone describes an accident which befell him, when 

 his large canoe full of natives was thrown into the air, and capsized 

 with the entire crew, by a savage hippopotamus when descending 

 some channel of the Zambesi. 



Accidents were frequent with these animals. In broad daylight 

 a hippo charged the steamer that was towing my diahbeeah. Not 

 content with breaking several floats off the paddle-wheel, it 

 reappeared astern, and, striking the bottom of our iron vessel, it 

 perforated the plates in two places with its projecting tusks, 

 causing a dangerous leak. 



Our vessel was filling rapidly, although, the steamer having 

 dropped astern to our assistance, we discharged our cargo upon her 

 deck, and at the same time kept pumping and baling out with 

 every conceivable utensil. At length the engineer succeeded in 

 finding the two holes with his naked feet, which he used as stoppers 

 until we were able to reduce the water. He then repaired the 

 damage with a clever impromptu device, by covering a small plank 

 thickly with white lead and tow, mixed together, and laid 2 

 inches thick upon a piece of felt. This was inverted upon the two 

 holes; a man stood upon the plank, thus pressing the tow and 

 white lead into the apertures. In the meantime an upright batten 

 was fixed from beneath a cross-beam, upon the plank, and a wedge 

 was driven to tighten the pressure of the batten ; this secured the 

 plank across the leaks. 



A hippopotamus can move at a considerable pace along a river's 

 bed. We had proof of this while running down the Bahr Giraffe 

 with the steamer, the speed with the stream being about 10 knots 

 an hour. The river was narrow, and in places rather shallow. 

 We observed the head of a very large hippopotamus, which rose 

 and snorted upon the surface about 100 yards ahead of the vessel. 

 When the animal disappeared, we could plainly see the wave that 

 denoted the course of the hippo which had this long start in an 

 exciting race. There was very little space upon either side in the 

 narrow channel, and we felt sure that if the hippo continued a 

 straight course, we should either run over it, or be struck should 

 it turn to charge. 



