faithful brute stepped on with its heavy load, and we hoped
that Jan was mistaken.

At length we came in sight of a broader river than we had crossed since
we had left the desert.

We had no doubt that it would conduct us down to the lake, on the
borders of which we hoped to find our friends encamped. How to cross it
was the difficulty. I suggested that we should construct a raft, as the
reeds which fringed the bank would supply us with abundance of material.

Not far off was a tree-covered island, the intervening space being
filled with reeds. Leaving Jan and the ox on the shore, my uncle and I
set off to reach the island, thinking that we could there more
conveniently build our raft and launch it than from the main land.

Plunging in among the reeds we soon found ourselves almost overwhelmed:
not a breath of air could reach us, and the heat was so stifling that we
almost fainted. Still, having begun, we were unwilling to give up.

Frequently we could only get on by leaning against the mass of reeds,
and bending them down until we could stand upon them. They were mixed
with a serrated grass which cut our hands, while the whole was bound
together by the climbing convolvulus, with stalks so strong that we
could not break them.

Plying our axes, however, we managed to make our onward way until we
gained the island, but here to our disappointment we found that we were
thirty yards or more from the clear water, which was full of great
masses of papyrus with stalks ten feet in height, and an inch and a half
in diameter. These also were bound together by the convolvulus in a way
which made them perfectly impenetrable. While we stood on the shore of
the island the sound of human voices reached our ears, and we saw in the
distance several canoes descending the stream. Each carried three men,
two paddling and one standing up with a large harpoon attached to a rope
in his hand. They were in pursuit of some large dark creatures whose
heads, just rising above the water, looked like those of enormous
cart-horses.

"They are hippopotami!" exclaimed my uncle, "and we shall see some sport
presently."

Suddenly, down came the harpoon, and was fixed in the back of one of the
monsters, which almost sprang out of the water as it felt the pain of
the wound; then off it went, towing the canoe at a tremendous rate after
it, the end of the rope being secured to the bows, while the barb to
which the rope was attached being sha