XII ANUS ATER HIPPO ray 
After an early dinner, which Mabruki soon got 
ready, I left my followers encamped in a safe 
boma a mile away from the river, and_ started 
out with Mahina to find a suitable tree, near a 
iippe ‘run’, in which to spend the night. 
Having some difficulty in finding a likely spot, 
we crossed to the other side of the river— 
rather a risky thing to do on account of the 
number of crocodiles in it: we found a fairly 
shallow ford, however, and managed to get safely 
over. Here, on what was evidently an island 
duriny flood time, we found innumerable traces of 
both hippo and rhino—in fact the difficulty was 
to decide which track was the best and _ freshest. 
At length I picked out a tree close to the river 
and commanding a stretch of sand which was all 
flattened down and looked as if at least one hippo 
rolled there regularly every night. 
As there was still about an hour before sundown, 
we did not take up our station at once, but pro- 
ceeded along the bank to see if any other game was 
about. We had not gone very far when Mahina, 
who was a little way ahead, signalled to me, and 
on joining him I saw a_ splendid-looking water- 
buck standing in a shallow pool of the river. It 
was the first time I had seen one of these fine 
antelope, and I was delighted with the sight. I 
might have got twenty yards or so nearer, but 
