酷兔英语
    当前位置:
  1. 首页
  2. 文章
  3. 娱乐英语
  4. 原版小说
  5. 正文

The Land of Footprints-Part33_Stewart Edward White(1873-1946)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

0 收藏 0 分享 0 赞

章节正文
文章总共2页
Government by settlers in a new country.



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 irregularexhaust 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. With the

heavy jowl hidden; and the prominent nostrils, the long



reverse-curved nose, the wide eyes, and the little pointed ears

alone visible, they resembled more than a little that sort of



conventionalized and noble charger seen on the frieze of the

Parthenon, or in the prancy paintings of the Renaissance.



There were hippopotamuses of all sizes and of all colours. The

little ones, not bigger than a grand piano, were of flesh pink.



Those half-grown were mottled with pink and black in blotches.

The adults were almost invariably all dark, though a few of them



retained still a small pink spot or so-a sort of persistence in

mature years of the eternal boy-, I suppose. All were very sleek



and shiny with the wet; and they had a fashion of suddenly and

violently wiggling one or the other or both of their little ears



in ridiculouscontrast to the fixed stare of their bung eyes.

Generally they had nothing to say as to the situation, though



occasionally some exasperated old codger would utter a grumbling

bellow.



The ground vegetation for a good quarter mile from the river bank

was entirely destroyed, and the earth beaten and packed hard by



these animals. Landing trails had been made leading out from the

water by easy and regular grades. These trails were about two



feet wide and worn a foot or so deep. They differed from the

rhino trails, from which they could be easily distinguished, in



that they showed distinctly two parallel tracks separated from

each other by a slight ridge. In other words, the hippo waddles.



These trails we found as far as four and five miles inland. They

were used, of course, only at night; and led invariably to lush



and heavy feed. While we were encamped there, the country on our

side the river was not used by our particular herd of hippos. One






文章总共2页
文章标签:名著  

章节正文
Copyright © 2023 Qeto All rights reserved.
商务合作 | 联系我们 | 关于我们 | 版权声明 | 隐私条款 | 如果智培

京ICP备05059198号-1 京公网安备 11011202003401号