NOTE-BOOK OF A NATUKALIST. 183 



the middle of the river. He describes the noise made 

 by the hippopotami as similar to that of the musical in- 

 strument called a serpent. The following truculent trap 

 will be as new to most of my readers as it is to me : — 



On the 20th (July) I again rode down the river to the pool, and 

 found a herd of sea-cows still there ; so I remained with them till 

 sun-down, and bagged two very first-rate old sea-cow s, which were 

 forthcoming next day. This day I detected a most dangerous 

 trap, constructed by the Bakalahari for slaying sea-cows. It con- 

 sisted of a sharp little assagai, or spike, most thoroughly poisoned, 

 and stuck firmly into the end of a heavy block of thorn wood, 

 about four feet long and five inches in diameter. This formidable 

 affair was suspended over the centre of a sea-cow^ path, at a height 

 of about thirty feet from the ground, by a bark cord, which passed 

 over a high branch of a tree, and thence to a peg on one side of 

 the path beneath, leading across the path to a peg on the other 

 side, where it was fastened. To the suspending cord were two 

 triggers, so constructed, that when the sea-cow struck against the 

 cord which led across the path the heavy block above was set at 

 liberty, which instantly di-opped with immense force with its 

 poisonous dart, inflicting a sure and mortal wound. The bones 

 and old teeth of sea-cows, which lay rotting along the bank of 

 the river here, evinced the success of this dangerous invention. — 

 P. 197. 



But we must unwillingly leave this fascinating journal, 

 penned amid the wildest, grandest, and most stirring 

 scenes that ever blessed or shocked a wild hunter's vision, 

 to return to the private history of our obese, tame, but 

 most amusing baby. Its capture, in fulfilment of the 

 nod of the friendly autocrat who presented it, was effected 

 at the commencement of August in the bygone year 

 up the Nile, nearly two thousand miles from Cairo, 

 when its bulk was about that of a newly-dropped calf, 

 but its proportions were much stouter and its height 

 much lower. Its unfortunate mother was mortally 

 wounded, and her attempt to return towards some bushes 

 growing thickly on the river's bank, instead of taking as 

 usual to the water, attracted the notice of the hunters, 

 who found the calf there among the rank grass. It 



