THE LAST FRONTIER 



began to come to the surface. Each beast took one 

 disgusted look, snorted, and sank again. So hasty 

 was his action that he did not even take time to get 

 a full breath; consequently up he had to come in 

 not more than two minutes, this time. The third 

 submersion lasted less than a minute; and at the end 

 of a half hour of yelling we had the hippos alter- 

 nating between the bottom of the river and the sur- 

 face of the water about as fast as they could make the 

 round trip, blowing like porpoises. It was a comi- 

 cal sight. And as some of the boys were always 

 out watching the show, those hippos had no respite 

 during the daylight hours. From a short distance 

 inland the explosive blowing as they came to the 

 surface sounded like the irregular exhaust of a steam- 

 engine. 



We camped at this spot four days; and never, in 

 that length of time, during the daytime, did those 

 hippopotamuses take any recreation and rest. To 

 be sure after a little they calmed down sufficiently 

 to remain on the surface for a half minute or so, in- 

 stead of gasping a mouthful of air and plunging be- 

 low at once; but below was where they considered 

 they belonged most of the time. We got to recognize 

 certain individuals. They would stare at us fixedly 

 for a while; and then would glump down out of sight 

 like submarines. 



322 



