254 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



on shore with the agility and speed of the true denizens of 

 the land; nevertheless, by sheer muscular power and in 

 spite of their shape, they move at an unexpected rate of 

 speed both on dry land and in deep water; and in shallow 

 water, their true home, they gallop very fast on the bot- 

 tom, under water. Ordinarily only their heads can be seen, 

 and they must be shot in the brain. If they are found in 

 a pool with little cover, and if the shots can be taken close 

 by, from firm ground, there is no sport whatever in killing 

 them. But the brain is small and the skull huge, and if 

 they are any distance off, and especially if the shot has to 

 be taken from an unsteady boat, there is ample oppor- 

 tunity to miss. 



On the day we spent with the big row-boat in the lagoons 

 both Kermit and I had shots; each of us hit, but neither 

 of us got his game. My shot was at the head of a hippo 

 facing me in a bay about a hundred yards off, so that I had 

 to try to shoot very low between the eyes; the water was 

 smooth, and I braced my legs well and fired off-hand. I 

 hit him, but was confident that I had missed the brain, for 

 he lifted slightly, and then went under, nose last; and 

 when a hippo is shot in the brain the head usually goes 

 under nose first. An exasperating feature of hippo shoot- 

 ing is that, save in exceptional circumstances, where the 

 water is very shallow, the animal sinks at once when killed 

 outright, and does not float for one or two or three hours; 

 so that one has to wait that length of time before finding 

 out whether the game has or has not been bagged. On 

 this occasion we never saw a sign of the animal after I 

 fired, and as it seemed impossible that in that situation the 

 hippo could get off unobserved, my companions thought I 

 had killed him; I thought not, and unfortunately my judg- 

 ment proved to be correct. 



Another day, in the launch, I did much the same thing. 

 Again the hippo was a long distance off, only his head 

 appearing, but unfortunately not in profile, much the best 

 position for a shot; again I hit him; again he sank and, 



