HIPPOPOTAMUS-SHOOTING 255 



fat, a striking contrast to the lean male I had shot in the Athi 

 river. Hippo-fat is greatly prized by natives, who attribute to it 

 imaginary medicinal properties. For culinary purposes I can 

 scarcely recommend it, but I do not wish to prejudice anybody 

 who is anxious to try it. Unless hunger supplies the sauce and 

 nature provides jaws and teeth like a negro's, hippo-meat is not 

 likely to find favour in Europe. 



A HIPPOPOTAMUS. 



My third hippo was a bull ; I shot it in Lake Albert. On a 

 subsequent visit to Fajao I got my fourth hippo, a female, and 

 exceedingly fat. I wasted a number of cartridges, missing time 

 after time ; but at last, one successful shot below the eye sent the 

 huge animal splashing and struggling, with its feet in the air. 

 The hippo sank mid-stream ; after three hours the body rose 

 from the bottom of the river and floated. The current carried it 

 more than a mile beyond where we expected it. Owing to the 

 serpentine curves the river makes at this spot, we should 

 have lost our prize, had it not been for a friendly native 

 who happened to be fishing lower down the river at the 

 time. He saw the body float past and stopped it for us. 

 There was a convenient inlet at hand, where we succeeded in 



