HIPPOPOTAMUS HUNTING 



Colonel Roosevelt's Thrilling Adventure and Narrow Escape on Lake Naivasha — He 

 Kills Two Huge Hippopotami. 



The hippopotamus is one of Africa's most interesting pachyderms. While 

 found in the vicinity of ahnost every lake and river in East Africa, these 

 survivors from a past period of the earth's history are getting less and less 

 numerous. Consequently our former President was very anxious to secure 

 a good specimen for our National Museum. His first attempts, however, 

 were rather disappointing. While stopping as a welcome guest at the ex- 

 tensive hunting grounds of Captain F. Attenborough and his brother on the 

 beautiful volcanic Naivasha Lake he at last got a chance to satisfy his desire. 

 His hospitable hosts, who have built an artificial lake on their magnificent 

 estate, wherein they have two or three dozen hippopotami, insisted that the 

 Colonel supply himself from this easily accessible store. But our Rough Rider 

 found this method of hunting in Africa altogether too tame and set out on 

 the lake alone, only accompanied by two of his native gunbearers. 



Hunting hippopotami is a very dangerous sport, for the beast is as familiar 

 with his watery domain as a fish, and often will keep under the water so as 

 to be invisible to the hunter, though he may be in the immediate vicinity of 

 the boat. Sometimes he will swim right under the boat and by a sudden jerk 

 throw the hunters overboard before they have time to realize their danger. 

 The chances of escape in such a case are very slight. 



The Colonel had made up his mind not to leave Lake Naivasha until he 

 had secured a fine specimen for the expedition. For several hours his search 

 was in vain. In his small row-boat he had already covered several miles of 

 his watery hunting grounds and had reached a distant and isolated part of 

 the lake, far away from his safari, when suddenly the calm surface was vio- 

 lently disturbed as by a tempest and high billows were rising all around. Our 

 sportsman had at last struck upon a school of hippopotami. The huge un- 

 wieldy beasts were apparently not less surprised than the Colonel. There were 

 a whole dozen of them and they crowded in upon the small skiff from all sides, 

 threatening to overturn it and throw the men overboard. If the frenzied 

 brutes had succeeded in their mad fury in upsetting the raft both the ex-Presi- 

 dent and his frightened oarsmen would have met with instantaneous death. 

 The two terror-stricken boatmen fully realized the danger, but were too fright- 



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