May 28, 1898.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
425 
had seldom seen, but when we had taken a hurried beat 
through a portion of the cover, as it was getting late 
and we had not much time for exploring it thoroughly, 
I came to the conclusion that he had greatly underesti- 
mated the wonderful resources of this ideal cover, 
especially in the matter of grouse, for I had never in so 
short a time found so many. The woodcock, he informed 
me, were to be found in abundance upon the gentle slope 
beyond, among the birches and pines. 
It is needless to say that I accepted the pressing in- 
vitation extended to me by every one of my new friends 
to pay them an early visit, and three days later I took an 
early start, arriving at the house in time to join the 
family at breakfast, receiving a very cordial greeting 
from all and an embrace from the little sprite that so 
strongly reminded me of the performance in the fence 
corner that I felt the cold chills creeping along my spine, 
but as I saw no signs of hysteria in the older girls I 
was soon in my normal condition. After breakfast, ac- 
companied by my host, I went to explore more thor- 
oughly the El Dorado that had so unexpectedly come to 
. me. Walking down to the lower end of the cover in the 
valley, Ave beat out the whole of it to the grove of tall 
pines at the upper end, finding more grouse than I had 
ever seen in a cover of this size; but their education, 
reason or instinct, call it what you will, was fully equal 
to that of their more persecuted brethren in covers that 
were frequented by shooters, although I could not ac- 
count for it, as my companion informed me that not a 
gun had been fired anywhere in this vicinity for several 
years, but they nearly all appeared to be well posted, 
for they flushed wild and made straight for the tops of 
the pines that I haA^e mentioned, and in consequence 
1 obtained only a few shots when compared to the num- 
ber of birds found, but I was well satisfied with the 
result, for when we arrived at the upper end and sat 
down beside a spring for lunch and smoothed out their 
plumage we laid them side by side on the green grass 
and counted fourteen of the beauties. After lunch we 
tied them together, and hanging them over a limb started 
for the woodcock grounds, a short distance away. 
This was an ideal woodcock cover; the ground sloped 
gentlj'^ to the south, and was covered for the rhost part 
with a fairly open growth of birches, while every few 
yards there was a depression through which trickled 
a minute stream that came from springs on the slope 
above, while tall-growing ferns marked its course to 
the valley below. From about the center of the cover to 
the upper edge there was an occasional bushy pine from 
6 to_ loft. high, adding beauty to the scene as well as 
making capital hiding places for grouse, where they 
were nearly always sure to lie well. This cover con^ 
tained more than a hundred acres and nearly every foot 
of it was capital ground for both woodcock and grouse, 
and as we beat out each nook and corner, finding birds 
in abundance, I blessed that big red bull for putting me 
in the way of adding to my list of favorite covers so de- 
lightful a spot as this, and I mentally resolved that re- 
doubled speed should quicken my footsteps when next 
I heard the cry of distress, and that the next dragon I 
encountered should receive the contents of both barrels. 
When we returned to the spring where we had left our 
grouse we added two more to the string and then 
counted out nineteen plump October woodcock; a pretty 
good day's work for a boy, indeed this beat my previous 
record by seven birds and I of course was corresponding- 
ly happy. This was one of the few of my many favorite 
covers that came to me by accident, and it could not 
have been otherwise, for I should never have found it, 
as it was completely hidden from view from any road, 
nor was there any other cover that overlooked it. For 
several years I kept all knowledge of this resort from 
the public, only taking a few choice spirits to enjoy with 
me its pleasures, and many glorious days did we have 
here, but as time went on, adding numberless atti'actions 
to the graceful form of the aforesaid little sprite, another 
shooter fell a victim to her artless wiles, and worse than 
this, somehow, she took a liking to him and gave him 
a pointer on my El Dorado, and thus I lost possession 
of one of the best of my favorite covers, for the fact 
that I no longer had an excltlsive right to it spoiled 
my pleasure, and I turned to other scenes. 
Why she should take a liking to this fellow I never 
could understand. He was fairly good looking, but I 
could give him cards and spades on this score, and beat 
him dead easy, and as for shooting, I could double 
discount him and still have plenty of birds to spare, and 
it is my candid opinion that when it came to shooting 
a bidl he would not have been in it for a little while. 
Well! well! this was long, long ago, and time has some- 
what smoothed over the matter, but there is still deep 
down in my heart a sincere feeling of regret for the loss 
of that beautiful "favorite cover." Shadow, 
[to be continued.] 
A Hippo Hunt. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Probably most of the readers of the Forest and 
Stream have not had a shot at the hippo in his home 
and an account of one would be of interest to them. 
"Hippo" is the usual shortening of hippopotamus: 
Like the majority of people in this part of the country, 
with hippo only three or four days from our doors, I 
had never shot one, even though T had hunted, traded 
and traveled in Manissa for the past six years. 
I was on a hunting trip in the valley of the Myamkara^ 
ra River, and my headquarters were at a Kaffir kraal 
(village) only a few miles above its junction with the 
Honde, whence they flowed a few miles further and then 
emptied into the noble Pungwe. I had returned to head- 
quarters for a fresh supply of provisions and to have a 
couple of days' rest and dry clothes, and was lying 
reading on my folding stretcher (cot) when my head 
boy (all male natives from sixteen to eighty years are 
termed "boys"; younger fry are known as pickaninnies) 
came to niy door and told me a man wished to speak to 
me. I said he might come to me. I recognized him as 
the "boy" who had promised a few days before to re- 
turn next day and guide me to where a hippo pool was, 
and who had not turned up. A native's promise to come 
on the morrow may be stretched to a- week or so of 
morrows, for they are not slaves to exact time, nor even 
to truth in abstract. However, here he was, very dirty, 
and as he soon informed me, fearfully hungry (dying of 
hunger, he delicately put it). He had a pickaninny with 
him likewise dirty and hungry. He told me his mission 
and I ordered skoff (food) to be given him. He was 
a typical native, about thirty-five years old, with short 
curly hair all over his head, a slight straggly beard, a 
few hairs on his chops and a miserable mustache. His 
skin was_ a light_ bronze color. He was of medium 
height, thin but wiry, and with muscles well defined, and 
bones very slender compared to those of a white man. 
The Mashona is a Kaffir and should not be confounded 
with the negroes, who are quite different race and are 
confined to the west coasts and center of Africa. The 
dress of my visitor was quite in fashion for a "raw boy" 
(one not having had to do with white invaders), dirty, 
simple and lasting — a bark string around his neck car- 
ried a charm; another bark string oyer his left shoulder 
had suspended from it his snuff box, in this case a small 
ornamented calabash. About his- loins was still another 
bark cord serving to hold up a leather apron in front and 
a leather breech piece; on his ankles were twisted wife 
anklets, about twenty on each. He had a Martiui-llenry 
rifle and one cartridge. The pickanny had his solitary 
blanket. Pie was thus ready for a day's or a month's trip 
as far as everything but food was concerned. 
It was late in the afternoon when he arrived, and so 
I ordered my boy Villura to get my things together, 
and to tell a couple more boys to be ready to start 
early next morning. I laid aside to be packed my tent, 
a light 8XBX7 A shape, some flour, salt, sugar, tea, 
rice and dried meat for grub, my waterproof double 
canvas-lined rubber sheet and a blanket, a change of 
clothes and a suit of pajamas, a tea kettle, a gridiron, a 
frying pan and a three-decked dinner carrier and some 
extra cartridges, also quinine and fruit salts. We five 
bearers and myself, got away at daylight next morning 
and tramped about twelve miles to a kraal at the junc- 
tion of the Honde and Myamkarara, where I had for 
rny usual 11 o'clock breakfast of tea (three cups), bread, 
rice and dried meat stew, native pumpkins and honey. 
This over, and a good smoke, we made a tramp of about 
fifteen miles to an old hunting camp of the natives, 
which was on a hill near the Pungwe (above the junc- 
tion). 
Next morning early my guide went to a kraal near by 
(ten miles about) to get a man who knew the river and 
the location of the pools where hippo were likely to 
be found. 
In the meantime I amused myself poking about, and 
was lucky enough to drop a reit buck (a long-legged, 
slender antelope, found in the long grasses near water 
and weighing from 80 to isolbs.). We later moved 
camp to nearer the river. About 2 P. M. ray guide re- 
turned with two men from the ki-aal and reported an- 
( other following down the river to try to find a pool with 
hippo in. I therefore ordered camp to be struck, and 
had it not quite packed when the other turned up and 
gave me the pleasant news that he had found four hipp6 
in a pool about four miles oft". 
When we got near the spot (we went directly for it, 
as the wind was in our faces), I had all my boys, ex- 
cepting my guide and the locater of the hippo, remain 
and we three went on carefully. I found great quantities 
of fresh hippo spoor (marks); there is no mistaking a 
hippo track if once seen, for it is a double path very 
broad and knocking down small bushes and grass quite 
flat. 
We could hear the river, and soon caught sight of the 
silver glint of the water through the trees and long grass; 
the locater and myself then went ahead. 
I'll never forget the first glimpse I had of the hippo 
undisturbed. Ag we pushed our way quietly through the 
dense'growth on the bank, there just below me stretched 
a large sheet of smooth water, about half a mile long 
by 300yds. wide, and in it were some black objects that 
looked like stumps; these were moving slowly and I 
soon knew they w^ere heads of kippo, for one suddenly 
sank with considerable noise of rushing air, and another 
bobbed up where none had been before. The heads 
looked about 4ft. long and a foot and a half wide, and had 
six distinct points on, two sharp Uttle ones just past the 
middle, two larger rounder ones in the middle and two 
high and largest at the front. These were the ears, tlfe 
eye sockets and not the nose holes, as I at first thought, 
but the upper lips .stretched over the huge tusks on each 
side. 
The hippo, not haA'ing been alarmed, were swimming 
high and the heads were half out of water and a large part 
of their huge backs were showing too. I watched them 
for some little time, for the double purpose of getting 
cooled down and to study how they behaved. Then I 
sat down and took a long and careful aim just between 
the eyes of the one nearest me, and let drive. A bang — 
a little splash a few inches in front of the head^ — a loud 
snort — a big splash, and a sudden disappearance of all 
the heads. I had underestimated the distance and taken 
it for looyds., whereas it was about isoyds. I felt aw- 
fully crestfallen, for I was under the impression that a 
miss meant that all the hippo would go into the long- 
reeds near the banks, and that they would only put 
enough of their noses above water to breathe, and that I 
woirld not get another shot. 
My man knew better, and he touched me on the arm, 
motioning me to go back into the dense reeds and fur- 
ther down the pool. We did so and I followed an old 
hippo spoor to a good cover behind some large boulders 
near the rapids, where the pool ended. Here I waited, it 
seemed an hour or so, but as my man seemed satisfied 
I concluded that the game had not finished. A black 
object appeared, there was a loud snort and the object 
was gone again. This happened again and again at in- 
tervals I should judge of really about four minutes. 
However, I saw that the object, which I recognized as 
part of a hippo's head, always appeared in the same 
place and each time remained longer on the face of the 
water. * 
Further up the pool I saw the other three heads 
bobbing up for a time as the nearest was doing. After a 
while one hippo put his head high up and had a good 
look round for the cause of the disturbance, and seeing 
nothing disappeared, and must have been swimming un- 
der water, for he got much nearer. The one near me was 
now making quite long stays above water and showing 
much more of the head, so I sighted on it, but it had a 
very aggravating way of going down just as I felt quite 
sure of my aim and was about to pull the trigger. How- 
ever, it came up once too often and stayed a little too 
long, and aiming at the ear I pressed the trigger. This 
time it was quite different. After the loud bang was 
heard the thud of the bullet, and the brute threw its head 
back convulsively and sank with a big splash, and then 
bubbles of air i^reaking on the surface told the plain 
story of the breath escaping from the lungs, and I knew 
I had killed one hippo. 
Then the fever of killing got hold of me, and I finished 
two more, I regret to say. Hippo, if killed, sink at once, 
and when the gases from the stomach generate suffi- 
ciently to give buoyancy it comes to the surface, a matter 
of from four to twelve bourse, according to the heat of tHe 
water and quantity of food in the stomach. 
The next morning my head boy woke me early to tell 
me there was a hippo stranded at the foot of the pool. 
THE HIPPOPOTAMUS, 
From BreVim's Animal Life. 
