AFRICAN RESEARCHES. 409 



that his left foot is treading on the tail of a lioness, and that a fe- 

 rocious-looking rhinoceros is meditating a rush upon him from 

 a bush on his right. This position of affairs, — " the devil on 

 one side and the deep sea on the other," to borrow the ex- 

 pressive language of Sir James, — disturbs the nervous system 

 of the Captain about as much as the sight of a polecat and 

 hedgehog would th at of an English grouse-shooter. He knows 

 that the lioness will trot sulkily off at the report of his rifle, 

 and if his black friend make a lunge at him, he has only to 

 pop down into the long grass, and be as safe as a needle in 

 a hay-stack. The chances are, that he despatches the ele- 

 phant with one barrel, and with the other gives him a com* 

 panion in the rhinoceros, to the banks of the Stygian river. 



Sir James, in speaking of the river-horse, finding that his 

 own language is not sufficiently forcible to convey an idea of 

 this terrific creature, employs that of the inspired volume, — a 

 plan which we think highly objectionable, unless there were 

 unquestionable evidence of the particular animal referred to 

 in sacred history, as having " bones as strong pieces of brass, 

 and like bars of iron, " and even then the figurative language 

 of the Scriptures is anything but appropriately introduced. — - 

 Captain Harris's ideas as to the formidable character of this 

 monster, may be pretty well gathered from the following pas- 

 sage. — 



" Of all the Mammalia whose portaits, drawn from ill-stuffed specimens, 

 have been foisted upon the world, Behemoth has perhaps been the most lu- 

 dicrously misrepresented. I sought in vain for that colossal head — for 

 those cavern-like jaws, garnished with elephantine tusk — or those ponder- 

 ous feet with which ' the formidable and ferocious quadruped ' is wont to 

 ' trample down whole fields of corn during a single night ! ' Defenceless 

 and inoffensive, his shapeless carcass is but feebly supported upon shortand 

 disproportion ed legs, and his belly almost trailing upon the ground, he may 

 not inaptly be likened to an overgrown pig. The colour is pinkish brown, 

 clouded and freckled with a darker tint. Of many that we shot, the larg- 

 est measured less than five feet at the shoulder ; and the reality falling so 

 lamentably short of the monstrous conception I had formed, the ' River 

 Horse,' or < Sea Cow ' was the first, and indeed the only, South African 

 quadruped in which I felt disappointed," 



We feel bound to express our unqualified approbation of 

 the greater attention bestowed by Sir James than by Captain 

 Harris upon the habits of the animals which fell under his no- 

 tice, notwithstanding the eager desire professed by the latter to 

 contribute to the Natural History of the country he was about 

 to explore. A few such notices as the following, scattered 

 through the pages of the Captain's narrative, would have more 

 than justified the lavish encomiums of the Quarterly Review. 



