THE HIPPOPOTAMUS 43 



CHAPTER V 

 THE HIPPOPOTAMUS 



THE HIPPOPOTAMUS. The range of the hippopotamus 

 once extended to the whole of the Ethiopian region, 

 wherever there was suitable water, and also down the 

 Nile to its mouth. At the present day it is not found in 

 the latter river until some considerable distance above 

 Khartoum ; but south of the sudd, and especially on the 

 Bahr-el-Ghebel, between Nimule and Lake Albert, it 

 becomes quite numerous. It exists east and south of 

 this point, on all the lakes and waterways of equatorial 

 Africa ; although the fact that it may be shot without 

 a licence on the Nile, and on Lakes Victoria and Albert, 

 is tending to reduce its numbers in these particular 

 localities. 



On the middle and lower Zambezi hippopotami 

 were, until a veiy short time ago, exceedingly numerous. 

 In 1898, while navigating the former in a steam-launch, 

 we used in places to come on large herds, sometimes 

 consisting of twenty or thirty animals, which practically 

 filled up the whole channel of the river, and so indifferent 

 were they to our presence, that not until the steam- 

 whistle was brought into play would they consent ta 

 duck their heads and allow us to pass. At that time, 

 too, they were fairly plentiful on the lower reaches of the 

 river between Tete and Chinde ; but the cruel and 

 unsportsmanlike practice of shooting at them from 

 passing steamers has almost entirely destroyed or driven 

 them away from the lower Zambezi and the Shire, and 

 in 1908, when coming down from Port Herald to Chinde, 

 not one was seen. They were plentiful ten or twelve 

 years ago on the Kwando and other western tributaries, 



