ous large boulders and
sluiceways to fall bubbling and boiling into deep water; it then flowed
still and sluggish for nearly a half mile and finally divided into
channels around a number of wooded islands of different sizes. In the
long still stretch dwelt about sixty hippopotamuses of all sizes.

During our stay these hippos led a life of alarmed and angry care.
When we first arrived they were distributed picturesquely on banks or
sandbars, or were lying in midstream. At once they disappeared under
water. By the end of four or five minutes they began to come to the
surface. Each beast took one disgusted look, snorted, and sank again.
So hasty was his action that he did not even take time to get a full
breath; consequently up he had to come in not more than two minutes,
this time. The third submersion lasted less than a minute; and at the
end of half hour of yelling we had the hippos alternating between the
bottom of the river and the surface of the water about as fast as they
could make a round trip, blowing like porpoises. It was a comical sight.
And as some of the boys were always out watching the show, those hippos
had no respite during the daylight hours. From a short distance inland
the explosive blowing as they came to the surface sounded like the
irregular exhaust of a steam-engine.

We camped at this spot four days; and never, in that length of time,
during the daytime, did those hippopotamuses take any recreation and
rest. To be sure after a little they calmed down sufficiently to remain
on the surface for a half minute or so, instead of gasping a mouthful of
air and plunging below at once; but below was where they considered they
belonged most of the time. We got to recognize certain individuals. They
would stare at us fixedly for a while; and then would glump down out of
sight like submarines.

When I saw them thus floating with only the very top of the head and
snout out of water, I for the first time appreciated why the Greeks had
named them hippopotamuses-the river horses. With the heavy jowl hidden;
and the prominent nostrils, the long reverse-curved nose, the wide eyes,
and the little pointed ears alone visible, they resembled more than
a little that sort of conventionalized and noble charger seen on the
frieze of the Parthenon, or in the prancy paintings of the Renaissance.

There were hippopotamuses of all sizes and of all colours. The
little ones, not bigger than a grand piano, were of flesh pink.