62 SPORT BY THE RIVER appearing, save in tlie trackless wastes of the marsh country and the remoter rivers.

The head of a hippopotamus is not quite the easy mark it might appear to be. As a rule, it is sunk low in the water, with the nostrils just above the surface, and the brain-box rises only 3 or 4 inches higher. At 100 yards distance it is therefore necessary to be tolerably accurate, for a bullet through any part but the brain would merely annoy him and cause a hasty retreat below the surface, whence he would return for an occasional breath and inomentary glance to ascertain the position of affairs before diving into safety again.

My bullet found its way right up the snout, and he rolled about on the surface, mortally wounded, until a second shot pierced his brain, and he sank like a stone on the farther side.

The midday trudge three hours later over the hampering sand of the dry river-bed, roimding the far end of the pool, the stifling heat radiated by the elephant grass, which met well above our heads as we passed single file along tracks made by wild animals, must be experienced to be appreciated. Happy the black man, whose pigmented skin protects him partially from the effects of hght and heat rays !

Forty yards away from the foot of the steep river-bank floated the great carcass, strangely little of it visible. To leave it longer would be to let it become the prey of the swarming crocodiles, whom my Arabs now prepared to dare. I took the pre-