We got up to them without difficulty, the great animals contenting themselves with sinking down into the water and rising again a few yards farther on; indeed, their excessive tameness struck me as being peculiar.
When the advancing boats were about five hundred yards away, Sir Henry opened the ball by firing at the three parts grown young one.

The heavy bullet struck it fair between the eyes, and, crashing through the skull, killed it, and it sank, leaving a long train of blood behind it.

At the same moment I fired at the cow, and Good at the old bull.

My shot took effect, but not fatally, and down went the hippopotamus with a prodigious splashing, only to rise again presently blowing and grunting furiously, dyeing all the water round her crimson, when I killed her with the left barrel.

Good, who is an execrable shot, missed the head of the bull altogether, the bullet merely cutting the side of his face as it passed.