The Country Was Very Beautiful; We Were Within Twenty Miles Of
Lofty Mountains, While At A Distance Of About Thirty-Five Or
Forty Miles Were The High Peaks Of The Abyssinian Alps.
The
entire land was richly wooded, although open, and adapted for
hunting upon horseback.
Through this wild and lovely country the
river Settite flowed in an ever-changing course. At times the bed
was several hundred yards wide, with the stream, contracted at
this season, flowing gently over rounded pebbles; the water was
as clear as glass; in other places huge masses of rock impeded
the flow of water, and caused dangerous rapids; then, as the
river passed through a range of hills, perpendicular cliffs of
sandstone and of basalt walled it within a narrow channel,
through which it rushed with great impetuosity; issuing from
these straits it calmed its fury in a deep and broad pool, from
which it again commenced a gentle course over sands and pebbles.
At that season the river would have been perfection for salmon,
being a series of rapids, shallows, deep and rocky gorges, and
quiet silent pools of unknown depth; in the latter places of
security the hippopotami retreated after their nocturnal rambles
upon terra firma. The banks of this beautiful river were
generally thickly clothed with bright green nabbuk trees, that
formed a shelter for INNUMERABLE guinea-fowl, and the black
francolin partridge. Herds of antelopes of many varieties were
forced to the river to drink, as the only water within many miles;
but these never remained long among the thick nabbuk, as the lions
and leopards inhabited that covert expressly to spring upon the
unwary animal whose thirst prompted a too heedless advance.
Wherever there was a sand bank in the river, a crocodile basked
in the morning sunshine: some of these were of enormous size.
Hippopotami had trodden a path along the margin of the river, as
these animals came out to feed shortly after dark, and travelled
from pool to pool. Wherever a plot of tangled and succulent
herbage grew among the shady nabbuks, there were the marks of the
harrow-like teeth, that had torn and rooted up the rank grass
like an agricultural implement.
After walking about two miles, we noticed a herd of hippopotami
in a pool below a rapid: this was surrounded by rocks, except
upon one side, where the rush of water had thrown up a bank of
pebbles and sand. Our old Neptune did not condescend to bestow
the slightest attention when I pointed out these animals; they
were too wide awake; but he immediately quitted the river's bed,
and we followed him quietly behind the fringe of bushes upon the
border, from which we carefully examined the water. About half a
mile below this spot, as we clambered over the intervening rocks
through a gorge which formed a powerful rapid, I observed, in a
small pool just below the rapid, an immense head of a
hippopotamus close to a perpendicular rock that formed a wall to
the river, about six feet above the surface. I pointed out the
hippo to old Abou Do, who had not seen it. At once the gravity of
the old Arab disappeared, and the energy of the hunter was
exhibited as he motioned us to remain, while he ran nimbly behind
the thick screen of bushes for about a hundred and fifty yards
below the spot where the hippo was unconsciously basking, with
his ugly head above the surface. Plunging into the rapid torrent,
the veteran hunter was carried some distance down the stream, but
breasting the powerful current, he landed upon the rocks on the
opposite side, and retiring to some distance from the river, he
quickly advanced towards the spot beneath which the hippopotamus
was lying. I had a fine view of the scene, as I was lying
concealed exactly opposite the hippo, who had disappeared beneath
the water. Abou Do now stealthily approached the ledge of rock
beneath which he had expected to see the head of the animal; his
long sinewy arm was raised, with the harpoon ready to strike, as
he carefully advanced. At length he reached the edge of the
perpendicular rock; the hippo had vanished, but, far from
exhibiting surprise, the old Arab remained standing on the sharp
ledge, unchanged in attitude. No figure of bronze could have been
more rigid than that of the old river-king, as he stood erect
upon the rock with the left foot advanced, and the harpoon poised
in his ready right hand above his head, while in the left he held
the loose coils of rope attached to the ambatch buoy. For about
three minutes he stood like a statue, gazing intently into the
clear and deep water beneath his feet. I watched eagerly for the
reappearance of the hippo; the surface of the water was still
barren, when suddenly the right arm of the statue descended like
lightning, and the harpoon shot perpendicularly into the pool
with the speed of an arrow. What river-fiend answered to the
summons? In an instant an enormous pair of open jaws appeared,
followed by the ungainly head and form of the furious
hippopotamus, who, springing half out of the water, lashed the
river into foam, and, disdaining the concealment of the deep
pool, he charged straight up the violent rapids. With
extraordinary power he breasted the descending stream; gaining a
footing in the rapids, about five feet deep, he ploughed his way
against the broken waves, sending them in showers of spray upon
all sides, and upon gaining broader shallows he tore along
through the water, with the buoyant float hopping behind him
along the surface, until he landed from the river, started at
full gallop along the dry shingly bed, and at length disappeared
in the thorny nabbuk jungle.
I never could have imagined that so unwieldy an animal could have
exhibited such speed; no man would have had a chance of escape,
and it was fortunate for our old Neptune that he was secure upon
the high ledge of rock, for if he had been in the path of the
infuriated beast.
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