ELMENTEITA IN FEBRUARY 
141 
horn, more or less rudimentary. After a cursory 
examination, we returned to bed at 1.20. 
At three o’clock we turned out again, but in five 
hours’ walk failed to find a hippo ashore, though several 
were grunting and blowing close outside the rushes. I 
stalked one of these and at about fifty yards fired at 
his head—so much, that is to say, as was above water, 
say three inches. The light was most uncertain for 
fine shooting, for the moon being in zenith, perpendicu¬ 
lar, the night-sights lent no assistance. Yet the ball 
seemed to strike fair and square, since no water flew up : 
but we saw that hippo no more. He disapjDeared without 
leaving a ripple or the slightest clue to guide us. What 
a disturbance that shot created ! From the trees over¬ 
head clattered out guinea-fowl in scores, while all the 
peoples of the wilderness, geese and pelicans, flamingoes, 
ibis, cranes, and the rest protested in strident cries 
against that outrage on the decencies of night. 
As the dawn broke we thought we heard a lion close 
by; it proved, however, to be an ostrich, the two 
notes being singularly alike. Then followed another 
startling cry, an explosive croak coming from the 
heavens, twice repeated. It was a Goliath heron, sailing 
overhead from the forests above. Presently, with set 
wings, the great bird swept downwards and settled on 
a rush-clad spit a mile away. Ducks in successive packs 
(chiefly mallard, pintail and shoveler) were stream¬ 
ing in towards the lake, where we also observed sacred 
ibis, stilts, greenshanks, ruffs and green sandpipers. 
Returning to camp after the adventures of this 
night, we examined the rhino. All our three bullets, 
we found, had got well home ; but the shot that had 
actually done the deed was little short of a miracle— 
Providential. Missing by a hair’s-breadth the two great 
horns as the beast came on headlong, it had crashed into 
the massive neck between the ears, smashing the spinal 
column. Had the ball touched either horn, it must 
have been deflected. 
It was my pony, “ Goldfinch,” we now learned, that 
