54 A SPORTING TRIP THROUGH ABYSSINIA chap. 



climb, before I shot it. We had seen numbers of greater 

 kudu tracks about, but although we found two lots of 

 cows, and searched carefully with the glasses, we could 

 see no bull. On the way back we came on both oryx 

 and pig, besides the tracks of lion, leopard, buffalo, and 

 hippo. We reached the river bank just at dusk, and had 

 a fearful job in getting through the belt of thorn-jungle 

 outside. We shifted camp next morning — an hour's 

 journey up-stream. I spent the day looking after and 

 labelling skins, getting out fishing tackle, etc. After an 

 early dinner, we all went off and took up our positions in 

 different zaribas, in the hope that a lion might pass, as 

 there were several fresh tracks about. The first part 

 of the night was very hot, but luckily there were no 

 mosquitoes. After breakfast in camp, H. and W. went 

 off to see if they could make anything of the buffalo 

 tracks, while I walked up-stream till I found a school of 

 hippo in a pool. These beasts come to the surface to 

 breathe merely for a few seconds at a time, and then only 

 show some 3 inches of the head above water. The 

 brain is very small, so that shooting has to be quick and 

 accurate. The first one I fired at rolled and splashed 

 about like a porpoise, coming right into shore and then 

 dashing out again, meanwhile throwing itself half out of 

 the water. Another shot missed, but the next hit the 

 monster in the head, when it sank. Further up the river 

 we found some others, one of which sank at once when 

 the bullet struck. As we repassed the pool where I had 

 first fired, I saw a hippo floating, with two crocodiles 

 swimming round ! A bullet drove them off. After lunch, 

 we all set out for the dead hippo, sending two men along 



