OTTERS 
211 
CH. IX] 
wound ; but the startled creature then rose high in the 
water, and he shot it in the lungs. It now found difficulty 
in staying under, and continually rose to the surface 
with a plunge like a porpoise, going as fast as it could 
toward the papyrus. After it we went, full speed, for 
once in the papyrus we could not have followed it; and 
Kermit finally killed it, just before it reached the edge 
of the swamp, and, luckily, where the water was so 
shallow that we did not have to wait for it to float, but 
fastened a rope to two of its turtle-like legs, and towed 
it back forthwith. 
There were otters in the lake. One day we saw two 
playing together near the shore, and at first we were all 
of us certain that it was some big water-snake. It was 
not until we were very close that we made out the 
supposed one big snake to be two otters; it was rather 
interesting, as giving one of the explanations of the 
stories that always appear about large water-snakes, or 
similar monsters, existing in almost every lake of any 
size in a wild country. On another day I shot another 
near shore; he turned over and over, splashing and 
tumbling; but just as we were about to grasp him, he 
partially recovered and dived to safety in the reeds. 
On the second day we went out in the launch I got 
my hippo. We steamed down the lake, not far from 
the shore, for over ten miles, dragging the big, clumsy 
row-boat, in which Cuninghame had put three of our 
porters who knew how to row. Then w T e spied a big 
hippo walking entirely out of water on the edge of the 
papyrus, at the farther end of a little bay which was 
filled with water-lilies. Thither we steamed, and when 
a few rods from the bay, Cuninghame, Kermit, and 1 
got into the row-boat. Cuninghame steered, Kermit 
carried his camera, and I steadied myself in the bow 
