101 



HIPPOPOTAMUS. 



HIPPOPOTAMUS. 



102 



savaus attached to the expedition to Egypt, who ascended the Nile 

 above Syene, did not meet with one. 



We now come to an interesting period in the history of the Hippo- 

 potamus, its arrival in Europe in modern times, and its appearance 

 for tjje first time within the historical period in Great Britain. On 

 the llth of December 1849 Mr. Mitchell communicated to the Zoolo- 

 gical Society, at its evening meeting, the fact that a live Hippopotamus 

 had been secured for the Gardens in Regent's Park. He then read the 

 following extract from a letter, addressed to him by the Hon. C. A. 

 Murray, dated Cairo, November 16th, 1849 : 



" It is with the greatest satisfaction that I communicate to you the 

 intelligence that I have succeeded in obtaining for the Society a live 

 Hippopotamus. It is now in a yard at the back of my house, and 

 apparently in perfect health : you cannot be more anxious than I am 

 that I may be able to keep it through the winter, and send it to you 

 safe in the spring. It is only five or six months' old, and still lives 

 entirely on milk. I think a fresh importation of cows will be neces- 

 sary in Cairo, as our little monster takes about thirty quarts of milk 

 daily for his share already. H. H. Abbaa Pasha has been most liberal 

 in haviug the animal brought here at his own expense from the White 

 Nil'. A lieutenant and a party of ten Nubian soldiers formed his 

 escort ; a boat was built on purpose for him, and the viceroy sent him 

 to my house in charge of the chief officer of his palace. I may also 

 mention that, by his Highness's orders, another officer with a party of 

 soldiers, is still out on the White Nile charged with the duty of 

 H< miing a young female for us, so that I am not without hope of 

 sending you the pair together." 



In another letter the same gentleman writes 



" The Hippopotamus is quite well, and the delight of every one who 

 sees him. He is as tame and playful as a Newfoundland puppy ; 

 knows his keepers, and follows them all over the court-yard : in short, 

 if he continues gentle and intelligent, as he promises to be, he will 

 be the most attractive object ever seen in our garden, and may be 

 taught all the tricks usually performed by the elephant." 



had then been born about two days. It was so small that, in his 

 delight at having accomplished the pasha's order, he seized it in his 

 arms, and would have carried it to the boat, which waited on him, 

 had not the slimy exudation which is lavishly poured forth from 

 innumerable pores in the skin of the young Hippopotamus rendered 

 it so slippery, that he was entirely unable to retain his hold. The 

 animal, having thus slipped from his grasp, all but escaped into the 

 Nile, where the mother doubtless was lying near at hand. The 

 hunter, however, with the presence of mind which characterises a 

 good sportsman, seized his spear, and with the sharp side-hook, which 

 has been in fashion in Egypt for three thousand years or more, he 

 succeeded in arresting the headlong plunge of his prize, without 

 inflicting greater injury upon him than a skin-wound, which is marked 

 by the scar upon his ribs to this day. 



" The long voyage down the river was successfully accomplished in a 

 boat which had been built for the purpose by the viceroy's order, and 

 ' Obaysch,' as they named the Hippopotamus from his birth-place, was 

 safely delivered, in November 1849, after a journey of four months, 

 into the care of the Hon. C. A. Murray, through whose powerful 

 influence the viceroy had been prevailed on to exert his power and 

 assist the Society in an object for which all exertions of their own 

 had failed. 



" Obaysch spent his first winter in Cairo, under the charge of his 

 present intelligent keeper, Hamet Saaffi Canaana, a Nubian Arab 

 whom Mr. Murray engaged for the purpose. In May 1850 proper 

 preparations were made, with the obliging co-operation of the direc- 

 tors, in the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company's ship 

 Ripon, for the transport from Alexandria, and on the 2oth of that 

 month the first Hippopotamus which had breathed on English soil 

 since the deluge was landed successfully on the quay at Southampton, 

 and liberated in the Gardens, from his travelling house, at ten o'clock 

 the same evening. On emerging from the door of it he followed 

 Hamet, who has scarcely ever left him during the whole voyage from 

 Cairo, into the building which had been prepared for him, and instantly 



Hippopotamus. 



The animal referred to in the above letter arrived in England on 



>'h of May. The following account of its capture and habits in 



the Gardens is 4aken from Mr. Mitchell's ' Popular Guide ' to the 



menagerie of the Society. A house and two tanks have been expressly 



l.'iilt. fur the accommodation of this animal : 



" Since the imperial exhibitions in the Circus at Rome, no. living 

 Hippopotamus baa been imported into Europe, except the young male 

 which the Society possesses. The difficulty of obtaining such an 

 animal may be conjectured from the fact, that after the viceroy of 

 Egypt had > to present one to the Society, it became neces- 



sary for his Highness to despatch an expedition to the Upper Nile for 

 the purpose of making the capture, and that success was only achieved 

 after two thousand miles of the river had been ascended. In the 

 month of July, ISI'.t, the chief huntsman of the party, in searching 

 the reedy margin of an island in the White Nil, called Obaysch, at 

 last discovered a little Hippopotamus calf, which, as he conjectured, 



indulged in a long-continued bath. The ten hours which elapsed 

 between his removal from the steamer at Southampton, and his arrival 

 in the Regent's Park, is the longest period during which he has ever 

 been without access to water. 



" The slow respiration of the Hippopotamus enables him to remain 

 for long intervals beneath the surface, and the organisation both of 

 the ears and nostrils are beautifully adapted for this condition of his 

 existence. The enormous size to which these animals grow has been 

 recorded by every African traveller, and is sufficiently indicated by 

 the skulls which are found in almost every museum. An adult male 

 in good condition, measuring five feet at the shoulder, would certainly 

 have three times the present bulk of Obaysch, who has most probably 

 grown quite as fast under the treatment he has experienced as he 

 would have done in his native river. 



" The principal food of the Hippopotamus in his natural state 

 appears to be young grass, grean corn when it is to be obtained, browse 



