Evening star., 1901-05-31

tween the wounded beast and our boat At
ms very spot. some months before, a steel
boat was attacked by hippo, although the
oeast had not been wounded and the oc-
cupants of the sinking craft had barely
lline TO run her near the bank when she
went down.
Nadelai to Affudu. but it exceeded all ex-
pectatlons. We had days of incessant dam
ger from the hippos. and nights of uninter-
Tupted agony from the MOSQUITOES From
the moment started in the morning nm
III We stopped In the afternoon | had 10
stand ankle deep In the water at the bot
tom OF the boat, rifle in hand. while NV
trusted sergeant major, Wana Omari kept
Watch on the other side. Fifteen minutes
never elapsed without our coming across
troops of hippos, and these became a reglI-
lar terror. The moment they saw our boat
they made dash for 1t. At first. seeing
my man afraid, [ laughed at them telling
Ihem that the hippos were much more
frightened than they, but | soon beca Ta
more concerned than the men or the him
pos We were going on beautifully. fol-
lowing the deep channel of the river which
was was carving US with a three-knot cur
rent, When the man at the rudder turned
shafp round, and took US In shallow wa
Yer. W hat are you doing?'' / asked
Master there are htppos ahead" he an
hurt us. Go on" He reluctantly returned
To the channel, when first a head then am
other. then half dozen more. bobbed out
or the water. Look sharpi Bring NV
cameray' 1 said to one of my bows.
Inc hippos were so close that | wanted
TO take photograph OF them Sudd.u1y,
large bull got his head clean out of the
wafer opened his mouth and made straight
Tor US did not feel like taking a snap-
snot, but seized my eight-bore. The beast
olFed. ana three seconds later was only
TOUR feet from the boat. | scarce knew
what to do. IL l fired and shot him Tho
rate at which he was going would bring
MN right under the boat and lust one
Single dying struggle would send US flying
Ia i AF.u1l l.
the movement frightened him. or whether
he thought better of 1t, he dived, and his
mead Just rubbed the side of the boat
had nor recovered from my surprise when
crack went shot behind me: the men
roWed for dear life into a shallow place
and, turning round. / saw a huge hippo
struggling in the water within ten yards
OF us. My man had shot him within five
yards IF the boat as he was making for il.
LUCKILY there was a large stretch of shallow
water close to us, and We got into IT: be-
nina US, the lnfuriated monster. who had
only been wounded, was rearing, plungins
and trying to get at us. We turned the
boat round, and then witnessed a WONDER
tul sight. The hippo could not swim to us,
put got IN shallow water and tried to get
at US. Badly wounded he fell on his
knees rose out of the water, tried to get
on the sand bank, fell back rolling over
and ultima tely forced his way toward ms
Bang went my eight-bore at thirty wards
and, incredible as it may Seem the bullet
struck on his back and glanced off, cutting
deep furrow In his skin. A second shot
hit him, and he rolled over but recovered
his footing, and We poured lead into him
and, after a minutes terrible struggle he
rolled round and died with one-half of his
pody standing out of the water. We had
settled one beast. but all round us the
river was alive with others. There were at
least forty. and there might have been
sixty. To get ahead We had to go among
them The river was at least four miles
broad with half dozen channels running
between submerged islands of reeds, You
might have got on one Of these islands but
you would never have reached the main-
land.
To shoot at another hippo meant only to
increase our danger. as, If We merely
wounded him, IT would infuriate the beast
and If We killed him it would not drive the
others away. L therefore decided to LET
all my men fire volleys into the water be-
tween us and the hippos. | had ten gums
and We fired three volleys, after which,
to our great relief, the whole herd dtved
and We could see them 2Do yards or so
higher up the stream. For five days this
sort OF thing went on. We sometimes
found the stream absolutely obstructed
with the herds. Twice shot some of
them charging us, and once we were fol-
lowed for twenty minutes by a huge bull
who, luckily, kept some fifty yards behind
u.s. There were only a few places where
we could land as between us and the bank
stood hundreds Of yards of reeds through
which We could not force a passage Here
and there We found small channels In the
vegetation, cut by natives to pass with
their boats. and after rowing for eight to
ten hours we used to force our way through
one of these to halt for the night We
should never have found these passages
but for friendly hippo hunters. who. prom
ised a present, showed us the way The
pluck of these native hunters is truly won-
derful. They go out In the smallest Of
dugout canoes, some of them not more than
ten feet long. They carry a long spear
with heavy iron head ten inches long,
with one big barb. A stout rope is fixed
to the head of the spear and runs along
the haft. to which 1t is tied. The end Of
the rope, about twenty feet long, is fas-
tened to a large block of very light wood:
they paddle among the hippos. wait for
one to rise. and dig the spear into IT: the
beast dives, but the log of wood, which
floats on the surface of the water always
shows them where he is. For two or three
him until he dies