120 HIPPO AND LEOPARD [ch. v 
and does not rise to the surface for several hours. 
Accordingly, back we walked to the house. 
At sunrise next morning Cuninghame, Judd, and 
I, with a crowd of porters, were down at the spot. 
There was a very leaky boat in which we three 
embarked, intending to drift and paddle downstream 
while the porters walked along the bank. We did not 
have far to go, for as we rounded the first point we 
heard the porters break into guttural exclamations of 
delight, and there ahead of us, by a little island of 
papyrus, was the dead hippo. With the help of the 
boat, it was towed to a convenient landing-place, and 
then the porters dragged it ashore. It was a cow, of 
good size for one dwelling in a small river, where they 
never approach the dimensions of those making their 
homes in a great lake like the Victoria Nyanza. This 
one weighed nearly two thousand eight hundred pounds, 
and I could well believe that a big lake bull would 
weigh between three and four tons. 
In wild regions hippos rest on sandy bars, and even 
come ashore to feed, by day ; but wherever there are 
inhabitants they land to feed only at night. Those in 
the Rewero continually entered McMillan’s garden. 
Where they are numerous they sometimes attack small 
boats and kill the people in them ; and where they are 
so plentiful they do great damage to the plantations of 
the natives, so much so that they then have to be taken 
off the list of preserved game and their destruction 
encouraged. Their enormous jaws sweep in quantities 
of plants, or lush grass, or corn or vegetables, at a 
mouthful, while their appetite is as gigantic as their 
body. In spite of their short legs, they go at a good 
gait on shore, but the water is their real home, and 
they always seek it when alarmed. They dive and float 
