THE HIPPOPOTAMUS 



the snout, and the tail of the hippopotamus. I knew 

 they had no chance to tear and eat up the body itself 

 until its decomposition began. But they were tugging 

 so hard at the animal — when they were not fighting one 

 another — that I was afraid they might pull it back into 

 the swiftly flowing river and I might lose my booty. 



In large rivers one should shoot the hippopotamus 

 only when one can be reasonably sure that the dead 

 body, floating down -stream, will be caught on sand- 

 banks or shallow rapids; otherwise the animal will be 

 lost to the hunter. I therefore fired from behind the 

 tree at the rapacious lizards and killed fifteen, until, 

 after an hour, my men arrived. 



The speed with which the clumsy - looking, short- 

 legged river- hog can move on land is remarkable. Twice 

 I had occasion to observe the flight of hippopotami on 

 land; once I had a narrow escape from being killed by 

 a river-hog. I met the animal on land towards the 

 evening. I fired, but only wounded it. Instead of try- 

 ing to escape into a large lake in front of it, it rushed 

 in my direction towards a pool behind me. I managed 

 to fire a second time. The animal turned away from 

 me and after a few paces fell to the ground dead. I 

 meant to shoot a third time, but my repeating-rifle re- 

 fused fire. I was thus saved by sheer luck. 



Another time a hippopotamus, at which I had shot 

 from the river-bank, suddenly appeared above the water, 

 directly in front of me, climbed the bank, opened its 



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