250 UNDER THE AFRICAN SUN 



a river which simply swarms with crocodiles, the traveller can 

 scarcely be expected to wish blessings on the head of the in- 

 truder, though the hippo probably rose in perfect innocence 

 of heart to the surface of the river, merely to get a whiff of 

 fresh air. 



At Fajao, on the Victoria Nile, and in the Lur country 

 on the west shore of Lake Albert, the natives complained to 

 me of the depredations caused by hippos coming to their 

 fields in the dead of night, devouring the crops of Indian and 

 Kaffre corn, and trampling sweet-potato and similar crops to 

 wreck and ruin under their heavy tread. At Fajao it became 

 so serious, that scarcity of food began to grip the Soudanese 

 garrison and the Wanyoro natives. The hippos apparently 

 knew they v/ere thieving, for they never showed themselves on 

 moonlight nights. But if the night was particularly dark, some 

 hippo would turn up and take a stroll, destroying the crops of 

 perhaps two or three fields. The Soudanese captain went him- 

 self one night with a loaded rifle to watch for these marauders. 

 According to his own account, it was too dark to aim, with the 

 result that the hippo chased ///;//, and he had a narrow escape. 

 In such a struggle for existence, the hippo is locally exterminated, 

 or the villagers must migrate to a region not favoured by these 

 animals. 



My first hippo I shot in the Athi river, where it forms a series 

 of deep, broad pools to the east of the caravan route. Swahilies 

 still call this river the " Mto Kiboko," which means "hippo- 

 potamus river." To shoot in absolute safety from the river-bank 

 at a hippo in the water, partakes very much of the nature of 

 killing pigeons at a shooting-match or bagging pheasants in 

 well-stocked preserves. If one comes upon an unsuspecting 

 hippo, one usually gets for the first shot sufficient time for a 

 steady aim ; afterwards it shows less and less of its head above 

 water, at longer and longer intervals, and barely allows a second 

 or two for taking aim. A successful shot is undoubtedly the one 

 just below the eye, if the animal happens to offer this mark ; 

 but if it presents the back of its head, then midway between the 

 ears. I have seen hippos sink dead to the bottom of the river 

 with one successful shot, to rise only when the gases within the 

 body produced by commencing decomposition have buoyed up 

 the carcase and caused it to float. But more frequently death 

 is not instantaneous, and the hippo rolls over and over in its 



