FROM PLINY TO SIR S. BAKER 



Pliny naturally copied his master, and added to his 

 errors. According to Buff on the first good account 

 of the hippopotamus was given by one Frederico 

 Zerenghi, who wrote in the year 1603. It must be 

 admitted that in that account there is much that is 

 both new and true. He observed the four toes, the 

 enclosure of the teeth in the mouth when closed, the 

 correct size, and noted that then, as now, whips are 

 made of the thick skin, sjamboks in fact. But in 

 repeating the assertions of others Zerenghi goes astray ; 

 for he quotes legend to the effect that the animal feeds 

 upon fish, crocodiles, and dead human bodies. He 

 himself, however, noted that rice and grain were con- 

 sumed by the animal, but was misled by the great 

 fangs into placing credence upon its flesh-eating pro- 

 pensities. There is no doubt that though the hippopo- 

 tamus does eat vegetable matters its teeth are used as 

 offensive weapons. Mr. Consul Petherick, who brought 

 over a specimen for the Zoological Society in 1860, 

 related how a hippopotamus " suddenly raising half 

 its great carcass with an agility hardly to be expected 

 out of the water, close under the bows, carried off my 

 unfortunate cook from the gunwale on which he was 

 sitting, one bite of the animal's powerful jaws sufficing 

 to sever his body in two at the waist." Other travellers 

 have told similar stories. The hippopotamus, being 

 an aquatic creature, naturally can dive with ease and 

 stay under water for some time. There has been 

 some exaggeration as to its capacities in this respect. 

 Sir Samuel Baker limits its endurance to ten minutes ; 

 but Mr. A. D. Bartlett, the late Superintendent of the 

 Zoological Gardens, found that a new born hippopota- 

 mus remained at the bottom of its tank for no less 

 a period than fifteen minutes, whence it was fished up 

 in a perfectly lively condition. The hippopotamus will 

 occasionally put out to sea, and the fact that it will 



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