Its thickness
protects the animal against the poisoned arrows and javelins of the
natives. But for this, it would soon become extinct in the rivers of
Africa, since, unlike most animals, there is no difficulty in
approaching the hippopotamus within bow-shot distance. It can only be
killed by the natives after a great deal of trouble combined with
ingenuity.

The plan generally adopted is, by digging pits in places where the
hippopotami are known to pass in leaving the water to feed on the
herbage of the neighbouring plain. These pits have to be dug in the
rainy season, when the ground is soft; for during the dry months the
earth becomes so hard as to resist the poor implement used by the
natives in place of a spade. The pit is concealed with much care, and
as months may pass without a hippopotamus straying into the trap, it may
be imagined how strong an effort of perseverance and patience is
required in capturing one of these amphibious creatures.

Another method of killing them is by suspending heavy pointed beams over
their paths, where they proceed from the river to the meadows adjoining.
These beams are elevated thirty or forty feet high, by a line which
extends across the sea-cow's track. This line is connected with a
trigger, and when rudely dragged by the force of the moving body, the
beam descends upon the animal's back, burying the sharp point in its
flesh.

The use of fire-arms is now becoming general among the natives of
Africa; and, as the value of hippopotamus ivory well repays the trouble
of procuring it, it is not unreasonable to suppose that the ungainly
animal, now one of the commonest sights in the rivers of Southern
Africa, will soon become one of the rarest.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

HUNTING HIPPOPOTAMI.

The hippopotamus killed by Groot Willem and Hans was a fine specimen,--a
bull full-grown and with teeth and tusks large and perfect.

Measuring it with the barrel of his roer, Willem pronounced it to be
sixteen feet in length; and he estimated its circumference around the
body at but one foot less.

Leaving it where it had fallen, they rode to another part of the lagoon.
The fine hippopotami they had seen inspired them with a cheerful
prospect for the future,--as far as hunting that species of game was
concerned,--but a still brighter one was in store for them.

Not half a mile from where the first was killed, they reached a small
pool about four feet in depth. Seven hippopotami wer