SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT 115 



mulatto, Mr. Lett. He it was who accompanied the Buttikofer 

 expedition as hunter and assistant taxidermist. He assured me 

 that Pygmy Hippos were occasionally met with in the Duquea 

 River, where the natives called them "Nigbwe," and in the dry 

 season sometimes killed them. At the same time, he gave me 

 a very lucid description of an enormous animal that had arrived 

 out of the sea, on the beach near Sheffelien, about 15 years ago. 



While I am writing these lines I fancy myself sitting on 

 the veranda of Mr. Lett's house listening to his tales of a 

 hunter's sorrow and joy. It is a beautiful moonlit evening in the 

 rainy season. After a severe fight the moon has defeated the 

 dark rain clouds and is now flooding the broad waters of the 

 Junk River and the whole country adjacent with a silvery light. 



The natives call the big hippopotamus N'nama, while the 

 civilized Liberians have hardly given it a name. Sometimes they 

 even call it a "rhino!" 



It was on the Duquea River that I made my first acquaint- 

 ance with the Pygmy Hippopotamus. On my return from that 

 country to Monrovia I shot and wounded one of the mysterous 

 animals described by Mr. Lett, which proved to be nothing but 

 the common hippopotamus. On my second expedition to Liberia, 

 when I explored the practically unknown section of the Golah 

 country, I had ample opportunity to study the habits of the 

 Pygmy species. 



In July, 1912, there appeared an article in the London 

 "Field" (CXX No. 3109), stating that the dwarf hippo and its 

 big cousin could never live side by side. This is not true. While 

 they do not live exactly together, I am absolutely certain that the 

 animals live perfectly content in the same locality, as I had op- 

 portunity enough to observe. Various Europeans also told me 

 that they do so in the Mano River. The article referred to 

 furthermore states that the Pygmy Hippo frequents the water 

 just as much as his big cousin. This it does not do while at 

 liberty, in its native haunts. 



When I was hunting on the Lofa River, near Taquema, I 

 twice found a Pygmy Hippo in the water early in the morning. 

 Once the animal was very near the shore, and seemingly intended 

 to leave the water. I was coming down the river in a canoe. A 

 common hippopotamus would have dived for safety, but that 

 animal at once climed up the river bank and disappeared in the 

 bush. Here one might say that it was only following the course 

 it had laid out for itself, before we came. 



