i86 FAILURE TO CATCH " BIFFOSy them ; and, as one appeared to be a baby one, we determined to try either to catch him in the net, or force him out on to the bank, and so secure him if possible. It was the very pool we had dragged for fish the day after our arrival on the Settite, and we placed our camp a little lower down than the site we had chosen when we first encamped on the banks of the river. We had been mistaken in imagining that either of the " hippos " was a baby : on the contrary, they were both full-grown. One kept ahead of the net, but the other dived underneath and went back ; however, we caught some fifteen or twenty fish, mostly small ones, which we could not weigh as usual, having left the steelyard at the camp. We distributed the fish among the Arabs who had helped us with the net. It was rather like fishing for sharks, and catching minnows. Colvin and Lort Phillips tried to shoot a hippo," after we had given up the idea of catching one alive ; but they were no more successful in endeavouring to ornament the larder with it than we had been in our attempts to secure it for the Zoological Gardens.

Three of us returned to camp in the Berthon boat, a somewhat difficult undertaking, owing to the number of shallows over which it had to be dragged or carried, and which rather reminded one of the man who agreed to work his passage by the canal-boat, and was made to lead the horse most of the way.

Just before reaching camp we heard a shot, and on arriving there found a great commotion going on. It appeared that Colvin, who had just come in, had given his rifle to Moosa to put down ; when he handed it to him it was at half cock, with the locks bolted. Salee wished to take it from Moosa to put it in the tent, but he was not willing to give it up ; and in endeavouring to take it from him by force it went off, and the bullet passed close by Salee's head.