erous to the hunter. If I could
not get a bear skin in any other way than by killing the animal with a
spear, I would let the bear keep his fur. If we see any brown bears we
will shoot them with our rifles, a much safer and more humane method
than the pike fashion.

After the bears, what shall we hunt? What do you say to a
hippopotamus? That will be something that we are not accustomed to, at
any rate. So away we go to the waters of Africa. If we travel along
the shores of the Nile and other African rivers, we shall, no doubt,
see some of these great creatures. But we must not expect to get a
good sight of any of them, unless we are very careful to hide
ourselves somewhere near where they are in the habit of coming out of
the water to take a walk on land. Ordinarily all that can be seen of a
hippopotamus is his head or his back, sticking up out of the water.
They can stay under water for a long time, occasionally sticking up
their noses to get a breath of air.

At night they often come on shore to see what they can find to eat.
They live on grass and grains, which they find in the water and on
land. These animals are generally shot or harpooned at night, when
they come out of the water, but occasionally a hunter sees one on
shore in the daytime, and he seldom finds any difficulty in shooting
it, if he can hit it in the ear, which is its most vulnerable spot.

The hippopotamus is naturally a timid animal, and seldom turns on its
hunters, but sometimes it shows a courageous disposition. Some
hunters, having shot a young but apparently a tolerably well-grown
hippopotamus, were running up to their prize, when they were astounded
by the old mother beast coming up out of the water and charging
towards them with tremendous roars.

[Illustration: A BRAVE HIPPOPOTAMUS.]

The hunters fired at her and then took to their heels, but having
found her offspring, she stayed with it and did not pursue the men. If
she had overtaken them, she would have been a terrible enemy to
encounter.

If, during our night-watches on the river-banks, we are so fortunate
as to shoot a hippopotamus, we shall find that we have a good supply
of very fine meat And what we cannot eat the natives will be
delighted to get. They consider a hippopotamus a most valuable prize,
and as the meat is good and there is so very much of it, their joy
when they kill one is not at all surprising. The only thing that
troubles them after a successful hunt is that th