194 
SAVAGE SUDAN 
reduction within dangerously narrow limits of so many 
more, that it gratifies to record the fact that at this 
day the huge hippopotamus—second biggest of extant 
terrestrial mammals (four tons weight!)—still abounds 
on the Upper Nile in numbers almost incredible. Daily 
one passes them in “ schools ” of a dozen or a score—■ 
sometimes double that. Most of them are afloat, showing 
little above water but the prominent snout and the cranial 
region behind, with eyes set in semicircular redoubts, 
and ears disproportionately small; others, like bronze 
Hippos Afloat—Bull and Cow. 
images, stand with half their glistening bulk exposed, on 
some spit or sand-bank. 
A second adventure occurred a few days later. 
Towards sunset the breeze had slackened down; then 
it died away, and the Isis , making stern way, drifted 
stern-first towards a herd of hippo which we had already 
passed. These, unconscious of our involuntarily changed 
course, continued their pre-nocturnal gambols till we were 
“right aboard ’em.” Close by, a big bull, distinguishable 
by his broad forehead and blacker hue, roared and yawned, 
displaying a tempting show of ivory. When he presented 
a broadside shot, I got him, stone-dead, below the ear. 
At the report, a second bull splashed half-clear of the 
water, offering a shoulder-shot. While shifting the rifle 
