Page:Hunting and trapping stories; a book for boys (IA huntingtrappings00pric).pdf/31

HIPPOPOTAMUS HUNTING but their snout, eyes and ears and as the head of the hippo is very flat it can get these sense organs out of the water without showing more than two or tree inches of flesh.

Shooting hippos is a very difficult and unsatisfactory sport, for a rifle bullet will hardly do any harm if fired into the body. The only place that they can be shot is the brain which being exceedingly small and well protected between the ears renders the task doubly difficult. Again when a hippo dies its body sinks to the bottom at once.

A hunter who was travelling alone on a tributary of the Zambesi River tried to capture a small hippo but the mother was close at hand and soon



got the youngster into the water. The current was very swift and the little hippo, winded by its rapid flight, could not swim against it. About a quarter of a mile away were some rapids towards which the little hippo was borne with its mother trying to overtake it. The hunter ran down the bank and climbed out on to some rocks hoping to head the pair off. The baby hippo after vainly struggling was swept over the falls. The hunter was armed only with a heavy revolver consequently the did not get either of the pair.

The hippo is very vicious and will sometimes charge canoes and upset