CREATURES OF THE WILDERNESS 63 



creature that comes within their reach. What 

 is the result ? Simply, as might be expected, 

 that the once inoffensive hippopotamus, smart- 

 ing* from its wounds (since these miserable 

 marksmen rarely kill outright), has lost its 

 temper, which is hardly surprising. 



Many of the aggressive acts on the part of 

 the hippopotamus arise, in Sir Henry Seton- 

 Karr's opinion, from the mother's anxiety to 

 protect her calf. The wooded islands above 

 the Victoria Falls have long served as a hippo- 

 nursery, and the mothers apparently resent the 

 presence of canoes. 



My reason for supposing that some such 

 grievance may have had its share in the manu- 

 facture of "rogues" is that, with very rare 

 exceptions, elephants reveal, when cut up, the 

 wounds and even bullets of former encounters 

 with man. This is why I regard bad marksman- 

 ship as a possible factor in having soured their 

 tempers and driven them to brood over their 

 troubles in a solitude that only makes them 

 more morose and anxious to avenge themselves 

 on those that persecute them. Now, there is 

 an objection to this suggestion of mine which, 

 in fairness, I must not overlook. The truth is 

 that, save in such jungles as those of Mysore 

 and Travancore, the native rulers of which 

 give occasional permission to distinguished 

 guests to shoot an elephant, these animals 



