THE HIPPOPOTAMI 



1037 



are constantly fighting among themselves at night, and apparently irrespective of 

 any particular pairing season; and it is also stated by the same observer that a 

 wounded animal may be furiously attacked by a comrade. 



The full age attained by the hippopotamus in its wild state has not been ascer- 

 tained, but, since a calf brought to the London Zoological Society's Gardens in 1850 

 survived till 1878, the span of life must be considerable. 



In disposition the hippopotamus is generally described as comparatively timid, 

 but when a boat passes unexpectedly into the middle of a sleeping herd, or comes 

 close to a solitary individual at night, the results are apt to be serious. SirS. Baker 

 says that, " when traveling by night in an ordinary boat on the Nile, there is no 

 possibility of escape should a hippopotamus take it into his head that your vessel is 



HIPPOPOTAMI AT HOME. 



an enemy. The creature's snort may be heard at a few yards' distance in the dark- 

 ness, and the next moment you may be overturned by an attack from beneath, 

 where the enemy was unseen." Dr. Livingstone relates how, on the Chobe, a solitary 

 male issued from its lair and charged some of his company with considerable speed, 

 and it was reported to him that another had completely smashed a canoe with a 

 single blow from its hind-foot. On another occasion a female hippopotamus, whose 

 young had been speared the previous day, rose suddenly beneath the canoe contain- 

 ing Livingstone and seven natives, and with her head lifted one-half of it completely 

 out of the water, so as nearly to overturn it. On the White Nile one of these 

 animals boldly charged one of Sir S. Baker's steamers, and, not content with break- 

 ing several floats from one of the paddle wheels, actually knocked two large holes 



