194 SAVAGE SUDAN 



reduction within dangerously narrow limits of so many 

 more, that it gratifies to record the fact that at this 

 day the huge hippopotamus second biggest of extant 

 terrestrial mammals (four tons weight !) still abounds 

 on the Upper Nile in numbers almost incredible. Daily 

 one passes them in " schools " of a dozen or a score 

 sometimes double that. Most of them are afloat, showing 

 little above water but the prominent snout and the cranial 

 region behind, with eyes set in semicircular redoubts, 

 and ears disproportionately small ; others, like bronze 



HIPPOS AFLOAT BULL AND Cow. 



images, stand with half their glistening bulk exposed, on 

 some spit or sand-bank. 



A second adventure occurred a few days later. 

 Towards sunset the breeze had slackened down ; then 

 it died away, and the /sis, making sternway, drifted 

 stern-first towards a herd of hippo which we had already 

 passed. These, unconscious of our involuntarily changed 

 course, continued their pre-nocturnal gambols till we were 

 "right aboard 'em." Close by, a big bull, distinguishable 

 by his broad forehead and blacker hue, roared and yawned, 

 displaying a tempting show of ivory. When he presented 

 a broadside shot, I got him, stone-dead, below the ear. 

 At the report, a second bull splashed half-clear of the 

 water, offering a shoulder-shot. While shifting the rifle 



