African Game Trails 
537 
ters tripped daintily over the lily pads, and 
when they flew, held their long legs straight 
behind them, so that they looked as if they 
had tails like pheasants. Sacred ibis, white 
with naked black head and neck, stalked 
along the edge of the water, and on the 
bent papyrus small cormorants and herons 
perched. Everywhere there were coots 
and ducks, and crested grebes, big and 
little. Huge white pelicans floated on the 
water. Once we saw a string of flamin¬ 
goes fly by, their plumage a wonderful red. 
Immediately after leaving the launch we 
heard a hippo, hidden in the green fastness 
on our right, uttering a meditative solilo¬ 
quy, consisting of a succession of squealing 
grunts. Then we turned a point, and in a 
little bay saw six or eight hippo, floating 
with their heads above water. There were 
two much bigger than the others, and Cun- 
inghame, while of course unable to be cer¬ 
tain, thought these were probably males. 
The smaller ones, including a cow and her 
calf, were not much alarmed, and floated 
quietly, looking at us, as we cautiously 
paddled and drifted nearer; but the bigger 
ones dove and began to work their way past 
us toward deep water. We could trace 
their course by the twisting of the lily pads. 
Motionless the rowers lay on their oars; the 
line of moving lily pads showed that one of 
the big hippo was about to pass the boat; 
suddenly the waters opened close at hand 
and a monstrous head appeared. “Shoot,” 
said Cuninghame; and I fired into the back 
of the head just as it disappeared. It sank 
out of sight without a splash, almost with¬ 
out a ripple; the lily pads ceased twisting; 
a few bubbles of air rose to the surface; 
evidently the hippo lay dead underneath. 
Poling to the spot, we at once felt the huge 
body with our oar blades. But, alas, when 
the launch came round, and we raised the 
body, it proved to be that of a big cow. 
So I left Cuninghame to cut off the head 
for the Museum, and started off by myself 
in the boat with two rowers, neither of 
whom spoke a word of English. For an 
hour we saw only the teeming bird life. 
Then, in a broad, shallow lagoon, we made 
out a dozen hippo, two or three very big. 
Cautiously we approached them, and when 
seventy yards off I fired at the base of the 
ear of one of the largest. Down went 
every head, and utter calm succeeded. I 
had marked the spot where the one at 
Vol. XLVII.—56 
which I shot had disappeared, and thither 
we rowed. When we reached the place, I 
told one of the rowers to thrust a pole down 
and see if he could touch the dead body. 
He thrust according, and at once shouted 
that he had found the hippo; in another 
moment his face altered, and he shouted 
much more loudly that the hippo was alive. 
Sure enough, bump went the hippo against 
the bottom of the boat, the jar causing us 
all to sit suddenly down—for we were 
standing. Another bump showed that we 
had again been struck; and the shallow, 
muddy water boiled, as the huge beasts, 
above and below the surface, scattered 
every which way. Their eyes starting, the 
two rowers began to back water out of the 
dangerous neighborhood, while I shot at an 
animal whose head appeared to my left, as 
it made off with frantic haste; for I took it 
for granted that the hippo at which I had 
first fired (and which was really dead) had 
escaped. This one disappeared as usual, 
and I had not the slightest idea whether or 
not I had killed it. I had small opportu¬ 
nity to ponder the subject, for twenty feet 
away the water bubbled and a huge head 
shot out facing me, the jaws wide open. 
There was no time to guess at its intentions, 
and I fired on the instant. Down went the 
head, and I felt the boat quiver as the hippo 
passed underneath. Just here the lily pads 
were thick; so I marked its course, fired as 
it rose, and down it went. But on the 
other quarter of the boat a beast, evidently 
of great size—it proved to be a big bull — 
now appeared, well above water; and I put 
a bullet into its brain. 
I did not wish to shoot again unless I had 
to, and stood motionless, with the little 
Springfield at the ready. A head burst up 
twenty yards off, with a lily pad plastered 
over one eye, giving the hippo an absurd 
resemblance to a discomfited prize-fighter, 
and then disappeared with great agitation. 
Two half-grown beasts stupid from fright 
appeared, and stayed up for a minute or 
two at a time, not knowing what to do. 
Other heads popped up, getting farther and 
farther away. By degrees everything van¬ 
ished, the water grew calm, and we rowed 
over to the papyrus, moored ourselves by 
catching hold of a couple of stems, and 
awaited events. Within an hour four dead 
hippos appeared: a very big bull and three 
big cows. Of course, I would not have 
