Furthermore, Every Little Tributary
Stream, No Matter How Small, Provided It Can Muster A Pool Or So
Deep Enough To Submerge So Large An Animal, Has Its Faithful
Band.
I have known of a hippo quite happily occupying a ditch
pool ten feet wide and fifteen feet long.
There was literally not
room enough for the beast to turn around; he had to go in at one
end and out at the other! Each lake, too, is alive with them; and
both lakes and rivers are many.
Nobody disturbs hippos, save for trophies and an occasional
supply of meat for the men or of cooking fat for the kitchen.
Therefore they wax fat and sassy, and will long continue to
flourish in the land.
It takes time to kill a hippo, provided one is wanted. The mark
is small, and generally it is impossible to tell whether or not
the bullet has reached the brain. Harmed or whole the beast sinks
anyway. Some hours later the distention of the stomach will float
the body. Therefore the only decent way to do is to take the
shot, and then wait a half day to see whether or not you have
missed. There are always plenty of volunteers in camp to watch
the pool, for the boys are extravagantly fond of hippo meat. Then
it is necessary to manoeuvre a rope on the carcass, often a
matter of great difficulty, for the other hippos bellow and snort
and try to live up to the circus posters of the Blood-sweating
Behemoth of Holy Writ, and the crocodiles like dark meat very
much.
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