XXIII. THE HIPPO POOL
For a number of days we camped in a grove just above a dense
jungle and not fifty paces from the bank of a deep and wide
river. We could at various points push through light low
undergrowth, or stoop beneath clear limbs, or emerge on tiny open
banks and promontories to look out over the width of the stream.
The river here was some three or four hundred feet wide. It
cascaded down through various large boulders and sluiceways to
fall bubbling and boiling into deep water; it then flowed still
and sluggish for nearly a half mile and finally divided into
channels around a number of wooded islands of different sizes. In
the long still stretch dwelt about sixty hippopotamuses of all
sizes.
During our stay these hippos led a life of alarmed and angry
care. When we first arrived they were distributed picturesquely
on banks or sandbars, or were lying in midstream. At once they
disappeared under water. By the end of four or five minutes they
began to come to the surface. Each beast took one disgusted look,
snorted, and sank again. So hasty was his action that he did not
even take time to get a full breath; consequently up he had to
come in not more than two minutes, this time. The third
submersion lasted less than a minute; and at the end of half hour
of yelling we had the hippos alternating between the bottom of
the river and the surface of the water about as fast as they
could make a round trip, blowing like porpoises. It was a comical
sight. And as some of the boys were always out watching the show,
those hippos had no respite during the daylight hours. From a
short distance inland the explosive blowing as they came to the
surface sounded like the irregular exhaust of a steam-engine.
We camped at this spot four days; and never, in that length of
time, during the daytime, did those hippopotamuses take any
recreation and rest. To be sure after a little they calmed down
sufficiently to remain on the surface for a half minute or so,
instead of gasping a mouthful of air and plunging below at once;
but below was where they considered they belonged most of the
time. We got to recognize certain individuals. They would stare
at us fixedly for a while; and then would glump down out of sight
like submarines.
When I saw them thus floating with only the very top of the head
and snout out of water, I for the first time appreciated why the
Greeks had named them hippopotamuses-the river horses.
