4IO SWINE GROUP 



times even longer, although if the water is warm it will float in about 

 three hours. Natives armed with guns shoot, as a rule, too badly to be 

 able to hit hippopotamuses in the brain as they lie in the rivers during 

 the day-time ; but they kill a good many by shooting them in the body 

 as they come out to feed at nights. 



" When they have no guns, natives kill hippopotamuses in various 

 ways. Pitfalls are dug in their paths, or traps set over them ; but the 

 animals become wonderfully cunning, and but few, I believe, are killed 

 by these means. On the Zambesi and other large rivers many are 

 harpooned, but the cruellest and at the same time the most destructive 

 method of killing them I ever heard of was formerly practised by the 

 natives of northern Mashonaland, who used to starve entire herds 

 to death. To accomplish this, a whole tribe would co-operate, and, 

 having found a herd of hippopotamuses in a suitable pool, would fence 

 it in, and, by keeping up fires all night and beating drums, prevent the 

 imprisoned animals from breaking out, and thus slowly starve them. 

 Once, while journeying along the course of the Ummati river, I came 

 upon a tribe engaged in destroying a herd in this way. When I 

 reached the scene of operations there were still ten hippopotamuses 

 alive in the pool, of which eight were standing on a submerged sand- 

 bank with more than half their bodies above the water, all huddled 

 together with their heads resting on each other's bodies. Two more 

 were swimming round, each with a heavy assegai sticking in its back ; 

 while several must already have been killed or starved to death, as an 

 immense quantity of meat was hanging in festoons on the trees round 

 the pool. From what I could learn, this pool had been enclosed for 

 about three weeks, during which time the natives said that the animals 

 had nothing to eat." 



The following notes, by Mr. T. E. Buckley, relate to the 

 hippopotamus in East and North Africa : — 



" North of the Zambesi there are no rivers of any size in which 

 hippopotamuses do not exist. In the Zambesi itself they are abundant, 

 though not so numerous as formerly in the lower part, owing partly 

 to shooting, and also to increased traffic. In the Shire river they 

 at one time constituted a source of danger, being very vicious, and 

 fond of pursuing and upsetting canoes, so that their destruction up 

 to a certain point was encouraged. Indeed, few travellers who have 

 done much canoe- work where these animals abound have escaped 

 their attentions ; the aggressor being sometimes an old bull, at other 

 times a cow whose maternal fears for her young calf have been 

 aroused. A wounded hippopotamus will often charge the boat from 



