IX 



TRAVELS IN EASTERN AFRICA 



409 



they are really frightened, they take a quick breath 

 and again submerge themselves. This makes the 

 shooting of these animals very difficult. 



After I had hit five of them, I went with my men 

 to a point four miles down-stream to a shallow spot, 

 where I knew the current would soon drift their 

 bodies. On the way we were close to the bank, when 

 a large hippopotamus reared his head above the 

 water, not twenty feet from where I stood. I was 

 fortunate enough to hit him just between the eyes ; 

 when, contrary to the usual custom of these animals, 

 instead of disappearing below the surface, he came 

 snorting toward us on the bank. My men scattered, 

 and I was just able to lay him low with a shot by 

 the time he had arrived within a few feet of me. 

 This was the only time I was ever charged by a 

 hippopotamus. In their native element, they do not 

 lack ferocity ; but upon land they are usually very 

 timid. As a rule, these animals do not venture out 

 of the water until after sunset, and they return almost 

 invariably to it before sunrise. Upon two or three 

 occasions I have come across them in the middle of 

 the day, feeding in shady spots, but never more than 

 a few yards from the water. 



It was some hours before the bodies of the hippo- 

 potamuses I had slain reappeared on the surface. 

 When they did, all my men were kept busy cutting 

 up the meat and drying it over the fires. That 

 night our camp was visited by many hyenas, who 

 howled in dreary chorus within a few feet of us. At 

 this place for the first and only time I heard a hyena 

 laugh. There is no doubt about it, the animal makes 



