- I went back in a rowing boat, accompanied by Lieutenant
Baker, to the two steamers which we found stuck fast in the drift rafts,
that had closed in upon then. Many men are sick - all are dispirited; and
they worked badly. Having worked all day, we returned at 6.30 p.m., to
my diahbeeah, having the good fortune to shoot seven ducks by a family
shot upon a mud bank on the way home.
"I found that the main body under the colonel, Raouf Bey, had completed
the channel about 900 yards long to lake No. 3. I ordered sail to be
made immediately, and after five hours' hard work, as the channel was
already beginning to close, we arrived in the open lake at 11.15 p.m.,
in which we found the fleet at anchor.
"March 17. - The lake is about 2 1/2 miles long, and varies from 150 to
300 yards in width, with a mean depth of ten feet. I sent men ahead in
the boat to explore the exit; they now report it to be closed by a small
dam, after which we shall enter another lake. Thunder and clouds
threatening in the southeast.
"About half-an-hour before sunset I observed the head of a hippopotamus
emerge from the bank of high grass that fringed the lake. My troops had
no meat - thus I would not lose the opportunity of procuring, if
possible, a supply of hippopotamus beef. I took a Reilly No. 8
breechloader, and started in the little dingy belonging to the
diahbeeah. Having paddled quietly along the edge of the grass for a
couple of hundred yards, I arrived near the spot from which the
hippopotamus had emerged.
"It is the general habit of the hippopotami in these marsh districts to
lie in the high grass swamps during the day, and to swim or amuse
themselves in the open water at sunset.
"I had not waited long before I heard a snort, and I perceived the
hippopotamus had risen to the surface about fifty yards from me. This
distance was a little too great for the accurate firing necessary to
reach the brain, especially when the shot must be taken from a boat, in
which there is always some movement. I therefore allowed the animal to
disappear, after which I immediately ordered the boat forward, to remain
exactly over the spot where he had sunk. A few minutes elapsed, when the
great ugly head of the hippopotamus appeared about thirty paces from the
boat, and having blown the water from his nostrils, and snorted loudly,
he turned round and seemed astonished to find the solitary little boat
so near him. Telling the two boatmen to sit perfectly quiet, so as to
allow a good sight, I aimed just below the eye, and fired a heavy shell,
which contained a bursting charge of three drachms of fine-grained
powder.
