222 HERD OF HIPPOPOTAMI. CHAP. VIII. 



since August, being now 80°. The air was as high as 96° 

 after sunset ; and, the vicinity of the water being the 

 coolest part, we usually made our beds close by the river's 

 brink, though there in danger of crocodiles. Africa differs 

 from India in the air always becoming cool and refreshing 

 long before the sun returns, and there can be no doubt 

 that we can in this country bear exposure to the sun, 

 which would be fatal in India. It is probably owing to 

 the greater dryness of the African atmosphere that sun- 

 stroke is so rarely met with. In twenty-two years Dr. 

 Livingstone never met or heard of a single case, though 

 the protective head-dresses of India are rarely seen. 



When the water is nearly at its lowest, we occasionally 

 meet with small rapids which are probably not in exist- 

 ence during the rest of the year. Having slept opposite 

 the rivulet Bume, which comes from the south, we passed 

 the island of Nakansalo, and went down the rapids of the 

 same name on the 17th, and came on the morning of the 

 19th to the more serious ones of Nakabele, at the entrance 

 to Kariba. The Makololo guided the canoes admirably 

 through the opening in the dyke. When we entered the 

 gorge we came on upwards of thirty hippopotami : a bank 

 near the entrance stretches two-thirds across the narrowed 

 river, and in the still place behind it they were swimming 

 about. Several were in the channel, and our canoe-men 

 were afraid to venture down among them, because, as they 

 affirm, there is commonly an illnatured one in a herd, 

 which takes a malignant pleasure in upsetting canoes. 

 Two or three boys on the rocks opposite amused them- 

 selves by throwing stones at the frightened animals, and 

 hit several on the head. It would have been no difficult 

 matter to have shot the whole herd. We fired a few shots 

 to drive them off; the balls often glance off the skull, and 

 no more harm is done than when a schoolboy gets a bloody 

 nose ; we killed one, which floated away down the rapid 



