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ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



ON THE TRAIL OF THE PYGMY HIPPO 



AN ACCOUNT OF THE HAGENBECK EXPEDITION TO LIBERL\ 

 By Hans Sciiomburgk 

 Major and MilHtiri/ Attache, IJberian Legation, London 



"C 



OME to see me at once, " was the tele- 

 gram I received from Carl Hagenbeck, 

 when I had let him know that niv pro- 

 jected trip through the French Congo had been 

 abandoned. I hurried to Hamburg to meet our 

 grand old man of Stellingen, who greeted me 

 with these words: 



"Will you go for me out to West Africa, 

 to try and capture an animal that has never 

 been brought to Europe alive, and help me to 

 preserve a dying species of the African fauna?" 



"Why, certainly," was my reply, "Have I not 

 just equipped an expedition to go to the Western 

 Coast.''" 



But when he then told me in confidence that 

 I was to go to Liberia, capture and bring back 

 alive sjjecimens of the Pygmy Hippopotamus, I 

 must confess that I hesitated. Here I was asked 

 to catch alive an animal which had not even 

 yet been shot by a European hunter ! Prof. 

 Buttikofer, the great authority on Liberia, had 

 tried for years to secure a specimen, and after 

 all he had to be content with the skins and 

 skeletons of three animals that had been shot 

 by native hunters, without himself even having 

 seen a live animal. 



]3uring my twelve years of African travel, my 

 motto had been, "Nothing is impossible." I had 

 explored the Wa Lunda country on the water- 

 shed of the Congo and Zambesi, without an 

 armed escort, in the face of the evil prophecies 

 of old hands who took leave of us for good 

 when we started on our trip. I had succeeded 

 in bringing home alive the first East African 

 elephant, an undertaking that had been tried by 

 many a well known hunter without success. 

 "Yes," I said, "I will go!" 



Six weeks after this conversation I landed in 

 Monrovia, the capital of the Republic of Liberia. 

 Here I was greeted from all sides with the as- 

 surance that no such animal as the Pygmy 

 Hippo existed, but only the big Hippo. 



Having read in Buttikofer's book that he 

 had obtained a specimen of the Pygmy Hippo 

 on the Duquea River, I decided to give this 

 river the first trial. Unfortunately I arrived 

 just in the beginning of the rainy season. With 

 the greatest difficulty I managed to collect twelve 

 carriers, who, on the promise of extra high 

 wages, agreed to follow me. 



In this lot, I must have found the human 

 sweepings of the streets of Monrovia. How they 



