IO 
WILD BEASTS AND THEIR WAYS 
CHAP. 
powerful rifle—one behind the ear when the animal 
is looking in an opposite direction, the other exactly 
beneath the eye when you are vis-a-vis ; both 
of these shots reach the brain. I had fired with 
great rapidity, and the breechloader had been very 
fatal; the channel being narrow, and perhaps only 
9 or io feet deep, a great commotion was caused 
by fifteen or twenty hippopotami, some of which 
were wounded, others, that were killed, had sunk to 
the bottom, and the remainder were in a frantic 
state of excitement. Presently a wounded bull 
rose to the surface, and snorting a jet of bloody 
spray, it rose several feet out of the water: im¬ 
mediately another bull appeared upon the scene, 
and with open jaws it seized its comrade by the 
neck and held on like a bull-dog. The fight con¬ 
tinued for two or three minutes, and although I 
was standing unconcealed upon the bare and open 
bank not 3 feet above the channel, the two animals 
fought and wrestled together until, coming within 
4 or 5 yards of my position, I put a ball behind 
the ear of one, and into the head of the other 
with the left-hand barrel, which settled the affair. 
I had more than 1500 men to feed, therefore I 
was not in the humour to lose an opportunity. 
There is no animal that I dislike more than 
the hippopotamus, if I am compelled to travel 
at night upon an African river in an ordinary 
boat. There is no possibility of escape should 
a hippo take the idea into his head that your 
vessel is an enemy. The creature’s snort may be 
