294 MAMMALIA— HIPPOPOTAMUS 



bellowing of the buffalo ; but his usual voice resembles the neighing of a 

 horse, from which, however, he differs in every other respect ; and this fact, 

 we may presume, has been the sole reason for giving him the name of 

 hippopotamus or river horse, as the howling of the lynx, which resembles 

 that of the wolf, has occasioned him to be called the stag-like wolf. The 

 incisive teeth of the hippopotamus, and especially the two canine teeth of 

 the lower jaw, are very long, very strong, and of so hard a substance, that 

 they strike fire with a piece of iron. This is probably what has given rise 

 to the fable of the ancients, who have reported that the hippopotamus 

 vomited fire. These canine teeth of this animal are white, so clear and so 

 hard that they are preferable to ivory, for making artificial teeth. The 

 molars are square, or rather longer on one side than the other, nearly like 

 the grinders of a man, and so thick, that a single one weighs more than 

 three pounds. The largest of the incisive, or the canine teeth, are twelve, 

 and even sixteen inches in length, and sometimes weigh twelve or thirteen 

 pounds each. The skin is in some parts two inches thick ; and the Africans 

 cut it into whip thongs, which, in consequence of their softness and pliability, 

 they prefer to those procured from the rhinoceros's hide. 



The male hippopotamus is about six feet nine inches long, from the 

 extremity of the muzzle to the beginning of the tail ; fifteen feet in circum- 

 ference, and six feet and a half in height. His legs are about two feet ten 

 inches long ; the length of the head three feet and a half, and eight feet and 

 a half in circumference ; and the width of the mouth, two feet four inches. 

 It, however, sometimes acquires much greater magnitude. In the south of 

 Africa, M. le Vaillant killed one which measured ten feet seven inches in 

 length, and about nine feet in circumference. 



Thus powerfully armed, with a prodigious strength of body, he might 

 render himself formidable to every animal ; but he is naturally gentle, and 

 appears never to be the aggressor, except when annoyed or wounded. It 

 has been erroneously stated, that he commonly moves slowly on the land, 

 but, on the contrary, when he has been injured, he has been known to pur- 

 sue persons for several hours, who escaped with great difficulty. He swims 

 quicker than he runs, pursues the fish, and makes them his prey. Three or 

 four of them are often seen at the bottom of a river, near some cataract 

 forming a kind of line, and seizing upon such fish as are forced down by the 

 violence of the stream. He delights much in the water, and stays there as 

 willingly as upon land ; notwithstanding which, he has no membranes be- 

 tween his toes, like the beaver and otter ; and it is plain, that the great ease 

 with which he swims, is only owing to the great capacity of his body, which 

 only makes bulk for bulk, and is nearly of an equal weight with the water. 

 Besides, he remains a long time under water, and walks at the bottom as 

 well as he does in the open air. When he quits it to graze upon land, he 

 eats sugar-canes, rushes, millet, rice, roots, &c, of which he consumes and 

 destroys a great quantity, and does much injury to cultivated lands; but, as 



