^ The Lonely Wonder-world of the Nyika 



of timidity. Especially the young ones, that were still 

 going about with their mothers, had so little fear that 

 I sometimes saw them rising almost completely out of 

 the water. They were also sometimes to be seen resting 

 in the sunshine on the sandbanks by the lake margin. 

 Some of these lakes were of such small extent that the 

 animals had to come up to breathe at a distance of at 

 most only some twenty yards from the observer. But all 

 the same they were generally inhabited by quite a number 

 of hippopotami. It was then a great pleasure to watch these 

 beasts for hours at a time, from the lofty look-out place 

 provided by the surrounding heights that rose steeply 

 from the edge of the lake. They kept up good fellowship 

 with the crowds of water and marsh fowl that give life 

 to these lakes. All these animals displayed themselves 

 to the spectator at as close quarters and as plainly as in 

 a zoological garden. The rosy red pelicans fishing in 

 flocks of hundreds at a time presented the most charming 

 contrast to the uncouth quadrupeds. Even now in fancy 

 these lakes come before my sight, lakes that lie far from 

 all human ways and doings in a silent solitude. Dark 

 clouds float over it. The proximity of the massive and 

 dark Mount Meru often causes a cloudy veil to hang over 

 that volcanic plateau with its crater lakes. Again I climb 

 the steep cliffs that ring them round, and again my gaze 

 sweeps over the level surface of the water. But though 

 there has been no decrease in the numbers of the water- 

 fowl that enliven the lakes, the hippopotami have, alas ! 

 disappeared. I found on the occasion of my last journey 

 a small number still there, but I hear from Professor 



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