With Flashlight and Rifle -* 



In 1896 hippopotamuses were still plentiful in the Xzoia 

 River and the Athi River in British East Africa ; they 

 were to be found, too, all along the coast between Dar-es- 

 Salaam and Pangani. I saw them on several occasions in 

 the surf, and shall never forget my astonishment once, on 

 getting out of a clump of cocoa-palms, to see what I 

 had imagined to be an uprooted tree-trunk out on the 

 sands suddenly change into a hippopotamus and make its 

 way out into the sea. 



Hippopotamuses travel by sea to get from one estuary 

 to another, no doubt ridding themselves at the same time 

 of certain parasites in the salt water. 



On the river deltas along the coast efforts have been 

 made to capture young hippopotamuses one of our best- 

 known dealers in wild animals lost his son through an 

 attack of fever brought on by one such attempt. Eight 

 years ago I saw in the harbour of Dar-es-Saalam some 

 hippopotamuses which were left unmolested there ; and one 

 nocturnal expedition on which I went out in the company 

 of the acting Governor, Herr von Benningsen it was my 

 first experience of the tropics I saw a hippopotamus 

 quite close at hand. As it was wild boar we were after, 

 I was naturally much surprised at coming upon one of the 

 giants of African life in this way. 



The capture of young hippopotamuses is a considerably 

 easier undertaking than that of young rhinoceroses or 

 elephants. Nevertheless, very few specimens have as yet 

 been secured. 



Some years ago a European resident in Portuguese 

 territory tried to catch a full-grown hippopotamus in a 



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