Joe plunged a bottle into the lake and drew it up half
filled. The water was then tasted and found to be but
little fit for drinking, with a certain carbonate-of-soda
flavor.
While the doctor was jotting down the result of this
experiment, the loud report of a gun was heard close beside
him. Kennedy had not been able to resist the temptation
of firing at a huge hippopotamus. The latter, who
had been basking quietly, disappeared at the sound of the
explosion, but did not seem to be otherwise incommoded
by Kennedy's conical bullet.
"You'd have done better if you had harpooned him,"
said Joe.
"But how?"
"With one of our anchors. It would have been a hook
just big enough for such a rousing beast as that!"
"Humph!" ejaculated Kennedy, "Joe really has an
idea this time--"
"Which I beg of you not to put into execution," interposed
the doctor. "The animal would very quickly have
dragged us where we could not have done much to help
ourselves, and where we have no business to be."
"Especially now since we've settled the question as to
what kind of water there is in Lake Tchad. Is that sort
of fish good to eat, Dr. Ferguson?"
"That fish, as you call it, Joe, is really a mammiferous
animal of the pachydermal species.
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