WATERHOLE THRILLS 87 



ous trap for man or beast, especially if the arrows 

 were poisoned. 



Not always would the game behave just as we 

 wanted it to. In one pool we were after hippos and 

 had failed to get good film. Unexpectedly we came 

 on a huge crocodile fast asleep with long jaws gaping 

 wide open. I set up the Akeley camera and told Osa 

 to go to a point above me and when I gave the word 

 to shoot near his head, but not to hit him. When 

 everything was ready, I signalled to her and started to 

 turn the crank of my machine. Osa did as she was 

 told and shot within a few inches of the reptile. 

 He didn't even move! Then slowly he closed his 

 jaws. I told Osa to shoot again; she did; but the 

 crocodile slept on. Finally we gave up our plan as a 

 bad job and started down to chase the lazy fellow 

 into the water with rocks. But just then a monster 

 hippopotamus which had been asleep under a rocky 

 ledge, splashed noisily away in shallow water. We 

 rushed back to our camera, but it was too late. 



