*72 THE GREAT THICK-SKINNED ANIMALS 
The best time to hunt hippo is at night and the place a “run” or 
path by which they go to water. There are flattened places on the 
banks often where the big ugly brutes come out to roll. The easiest 
and best thing to do is to climb a tree before moonrise near this run or 
rolling place and wait until the hippo’s peculiar tooting challenge is 
heard or the noise of the great beast crashing through the forest or 
pounding along the run. This is the best sort of an opportunity to 
get a specimen, as, if the shooting has to be done from an island or from 
the bank on foot, a charge by the hippo may result very seriously. 
A BATTLE BETWEEN A BUFFALO AND A HIPPOPOTAMUS 
Though the enormous ungainly body is carried on very short legs, 
it is capable of considerable speed for a short distance on land and of 
swimming with perfect ease, and not only the rush but an attack with 
the heavy tusks placed on both sides of the big, thick, square head is 
to be feared. 
Hippos are comparatively numerous, and Mr. Cunninghame will 
undoubtedly take care that Mr. Roosevelt secures at least one specimen. 
The tusks are much valued as trophies, and the natives are very fond 
of the flesh. Another familiar use of the hippo in South and East 
Africa is to supply the hide for making the sjambok, the terrible 
