THE ATHI RIVER 221 



In another forest-girt pool, overarclied with broad- 

 topped "fever-trees," Mabruki's wondrous instinct de- 

 tected a hippo where none save savage eye coukl surely 

 have espied it. A big leafy tree had fallen half across 

 the river, and it w-as beneath the sunken boughs of this, 

 all laden with drift grass and WTack, that the hippo 

 at intervals show^ed i\^ to breathe. Nothing even then 

 was visible save only the snout and elevated cranium, 

 and these concealed amidst leafage and drift. By 

 creeping forward while the hippo was under, I reached 

 a fallen tree within fifteen yards. Presently that weird 

 apparition emerged, silent and ghost-like amid the 

 shadows. I placed a •450-solid fair on the cranium — 

 somewhere : for a resounding crash ensued, yet no water 

 flew up nor w^as there a ripple to be seen. 



Note that the impact of a ball from these powerful 

 rifles on luater will throw up a solid column twenty feet 

 in height and stun all the fish for yards around. There 

 is therefore no mistaking a miss. 



Yet we never saw that hippo again. So absolutely 

 certain did I feel that he must be dead, that when we 

 did not find him floating next morning, thinking he 

 must be held down by the fallen tree, we returned a 

 third time in the afternoon with axes, ropes, etc., and 

 cut the trunk loose. But nothing appeared. The luck 

 of Elmenteita was repeated. I was fated not to get a 

 hippo : yet the undertaking presents not a tithe the 

 difficulty of others in which we succeeded. 



The presence of so many ichthyophagous birds and 

 reptiles clearly bespoke fish, and our men caught 

 numbers of a small dace-like species, pale green above, 

 silvery below, which took a bait greedily, and were 

 jerked ashore. Though almost tasteless, fish were 

 welcome enouoh as a cliang;e in our veld fare. We also 

 saw other fish, much larger — apparently several pounds 

 in weight — in the deep pools of the Athi. 



The early mornings at this season (January) were cold, 

 still and foggy, with heavy dew. At nine o'clock a 

 breeze set in from the north, increasing during the day 



