TO LAKE NAIVASHA 
213 
spite of their shape, they move at an unexpected rate of 
speed both on dry land and in deep water; and in shallow 
water, their true home, they gallop very fast on the bot¬ 
tom, under water. Ordinarily only their heads can be seen, 
and they must be shot in the brain. If they are found in 
a pool with little cover, and if the shots can be taken close 
by, from firm ground, there is no sport whatever in killing 
them. But the brain is small and the skull huge, and if 
they are any distance off, and especially if the shot has to 
be taken from an unsteady boat, there is ample oppor¬ 
tunity to miss. 
On the day we spent with the big row-boat in the lagoons 
both Kermit and I had shots; each of us hit, but neither 
of us got his game. My shot was at the head of a hippo 
facing me in a bay about a hundred yards oflf, so that I had 
to try to shoot very low between the eyes; the water was 
smooth, and I braced my legs well and fired off-hand, I 
hit him, but was confident that I had missed the brain, for 
he lifted slightly, and then went under, nose last; and 
when a hippo is shot in the brain the head usually goes 
under nose first. An exasperating feature of hippo shoot¬ 
ing is that, save in exceptional circumstances, where the 
water is very shallow, the animal sinks at once when killed 
outright, and does not float for one or two or three hours; 
so that one has to wait that length of time before finding 
out whether the game has or has not been bagged. On 
this occasion we never saw a sign of the animal after I 
fired, and as it seemed impossible that in that situation the 
hippo could get off unobserved, my companions thought I 
had killed him; I thought not, and unfortunately my judg¬ 
ment proved to be correct. 
