Thus Cleverly Made Sure, We Quickly Brought A Strain Upon
The Hippo, And, Although I Have Had Some Experience In Handling
Big Fish, I Never Knew One Pull So Lustily As The Amphibious
Animal That We Now Alternately Coaxed And Bullied.
He sprang out
of the water, gnashed his huge jaws, snorted with tremendous
rage, and lashed the river into foam; he then dived, and
foolishly approached us beneath the water.
We quickly gathered in
the slack line, and took a round turn upon a large rock, within
a few feet of the river. The hippo now rose to the surface, about
ten yards from the hunters, and, jumping half out of the water,
he snapped his great jaws together, endeavouring to catch the
rope, but at the same instant two harpoons were launched into his
side. Disdaining retreat, and maddened with rage, the furious
animal charged from the depths of the river, and, gaining a
footing, he reared his bulky form from the surface, came boldly
upon the sandbank, and attacked the hunters open-mouthed. He
little knew his enemy; they were not the men to fear a pair of
gaping jaws, armed with a deadly array of tusks, but half a dozen
lances were hurled at him, some entering his mouth from a
distance of five or six paces, at the same time several men threw
handfuls of sand into his enormous eyes. This baffled him more
than the lances; he crunched the shafts between his powerful jaws
like straws, but he was beaten by the sand, and, shaking his huge
head, he retreated to the river.
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