SOUTH AFRICA FIFTY YEARS AGO 85 
haps, I ought to say—for we had then no friendly hippo in the 
Zoo—there was no mistaking him. 
I opened fire at once from my side at heads which showed 
for a second above water and then disappeared below, again 
to reappear ; and Murray kept pounding away from his. This 
‘went on for a quarter of an hour, and nothing came of it ; 
though the hippos were hit every time, not one of them seemed 
to die—there was, apparently, the same amount of snorting, 
puffing, and blowing—but no results of the thirty or forty shots 
that had been fired, and yet the animals were within twenty or 
twenty-five yards of us. ‘ Have you killed any, old fellow?’ 
I shouted, and the answer came back to me, ‘No!’ At the 
same moment a big bull made straight for the part of the bank 
on which I was standing. Letting him get his forelegs clear 
of the water, I fired within three feet of his head, blowing him 
Bes. back, as it seemed, into the stream. ‘Well, I'll swear I hit 
him!’ I roared to Murray. ‘Oh, I’ve hit all I’ve fired at,’ 
_ Was his reply. The evening was closing in, and just before we 
started for the waggons one hippopotamus floated up dead on 
‘Murray's side. We looked at one another, and did not say 
_ much of our shooting. _Next morning, however, on the surface 
of the creek lay fourteen huge bodies—a hippopotamus sinks 
‘to the bottom when killed, and only floats when the gas 
_ distends the stomach ; at least, that was our reading of the 
riddle. It is the seiko of sport, and I never shot another 
except for food. The young are very good eating, the flesh 
_ resembling the most delicate pork. 
We knew nothing about the tusks when we shot this first 
- batch, and so lost some valuable ivory. Large hippopotamus’ 
_ teeth were then worth 20s. a Ib., when elephant ivory would 
_ bring only 5s. 6d., the former, I believe, being used for the 
_ finest sort of inlaying and artificial teeth.! 
__ The hippopotamus and crocodile live together in the same 
_ 1 Sir S. Baker tells me these prices are altered now, and that in 1892 
elephant ivory fetches from 12s. to 18s. a pound, and hippo’s only from ss. 
a0 ¥0u., ee ain tt. 
