I fired at the shoulder, and, as he swung round, a second time, at the head. The other hippo meanwhile advanced towards me, and I fired, as I thought, between his ears.

As he still advanced, I fired again, and he dropped on to his knees, but immediately afterwards got up. This interval enabled me to make a bolt for the narrow path by which I had come, it being almost impossible for a man to break a path for himself through the grass, where every grass stem is from half an inch to an inch in diameter and ten or twelve feet high. I arrived at the path first, fired my last cartridge at the old bull, and, rushing down the narrow track, jumped into the Congo, to find that my boatmen had already embarked, and had departed in the canoe to a safe distance.

No sooner was I swimming in the Congo