e
buoy was carried on the hunter's left hand.

After proceeding a couple of miles, a herd of hippopotami were seen in a
pool below a rapid surrounded by rocks. He, however, remarking that
they were too wide-awake to be attacked, continued his course down the
stream till a smaller pool was reached. Here the immense head of a
hippopotamus was seen, close to a perpendicular rock that formed a wall
to the river. The old hunter, motioning the travellers to remain quiet,
immediately plunged into the stream and crossed to the opposite bank,
whence, keeping himself under shelter, he made his way directly towards
the spot beneath which the hippopotamus was lying. "Stealthily he
approached, his long thin arm raised, with the harpoon ready to strike.
The hippopotamus, however, had vanished, but far from exhibiting
surprise, the veteran hunter remaining standing on the sharp ledge,
unchanged in attitude. No figure of bronze could be more rigid than
that of the old river king, as he thus stood, his left foot advanced,
his right-hand grasping the harpoon above his head, and his left the
loose coil of rope attached to the buoy."

"Three minutes thus passed, when suddenly the right arm of the statue
descended like lightening, and the harpoon shot perpendicularly into the
pool with the speed of an arrow. In an instant an enormous pair of open
jaws appeared, followed by the ungainly head and form of a furious
hippopotamus, who, springing half out of the water, lashed the river
into foam as he charged straight up the violent rapids. With
extraordinary power he breasted the descending stream, gaining a footing
in the rapids where they were about five feet deep, thus making his way,
till, landing from the river, he started at full gallop along the
shingly bed, and disappeared in the thorny jungle. No one would have
supposed that so unwieldy an animal could have exhibited such speed, and
it was fortunate for old Neptune that he was secure on the high ledge of
rock, for had he been on the path of the infuriated beast, there would
have been an end of Abou Do."

The old man rejoined his companions, when Mr Baker proposed going in
search of the animal. The hunter, however, explained that the
hippopotamus would certainly return after a short time to the water. In
a few minutes the animal emerged from the jungle and descended at full
trot into the pool where the other hippopotami had been seen, about half
a mile off. Upon reaching it