THE SPORTSMAN IN .SOUTH AFRICA. (^1 



passing unmolested up and down the open water in broad day- 

 light right in front of Moremi's old town at Lake 'Ngami. The 

 natives, although armed with breech-loading rifles, rarely attempt 

 to interfere with them there, probably being deterred by the fear of 

 coming to close quarters in their moghoros (canoes), or in the 

 belief that it is merely a waste of ammunition to iire at a quadruped 

 from any distance with so small a portion of the head exposed. 

 Except in very secluded places where it is rarely disturbed, it is 

 quite unusual to observe a Hippopotamus elevate more than a 

 fractional portion of the forehead, eyes, or nostrils above the water 

 (unless well concealed in the dense reeds) ; and when thus placed, it 

 is not only a useless, but an exceedingly cruel practice to fire, unless 

 the bullet be directed from an elevated position above the water; 

 for, although the animal may be struck, the chances are a hundred 

 to one against the bullet being sufficiently deadly in its effect as to 

 permit of the bodies being recovered. The idea that the brain can 

 be reached by a shot through the nostrils is absurd ; at all events it 

 never occurs in actual practice. Many thoughtless persons consider 

 it the height of "sport" to continually plug the unfortunate beasts 

 without the least hope of securing one, and rejoice exceedingly as 

 the bullet strikes some exposed portion of the head, quite oblivious 

 of the dreadful torture and lingering agony which the wounds 

 inflict. 



The Hippopotamus emerges from the water shortly after sun- 

 down, and passes the first hours of the night in wandering along 

 the shore on the feed, lying recumbent during the remaining hours 

 in the recesses of the bush, and returning to the reed-beds before 

 dawn. Unless disturbed, it will resort to the same dry bed on land 

 night after night, always following the same path to and from the 

 water, and the natives of the 'Ngami, Chobe, and Zambesi, taking 

 advantage of these circumstances, occasionally manage to kill them 

 by excavating huge pits in the beaten tracks, covering the mouths 

 with branches, grasses, and reeds, into which receptacles the unsus- 

 pecting animal readily falls. Another plan adopted is to suspend a 

 large barbed assegai, heavily weighted with stones, to a branch 

 immediately overhanging one of these paths, which, on being 

 freed by the Hippopotamus coming into contact with a trigger -rope 

 set directly across the passage, may bury itself deeply in the back, and 

 if not instantaneously, death generally results from the wound within 

 a very short period. Some of the native tribes to the East of the 



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