74 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



South- West Africa. From Angola they may be found 

 in nearly all rivers right through Western Africa as 

 far north as Gambia. The lakes and adjacent rivers 

 of Equatorial Africa still hold very large ^numbers of 

 these huge amphibians, and it will be many a long 

 year before the last behemoth bathes his immense and 

 unwieldy bulk in the waters of these regions. 



The hippopotamus is a near relative of the swine, 

 but, of course, distinguishable from these animals by 

 many important characteristics. Its form and shape 

 are too well known to need minute description. The 

 huge, swollen, barrel-like body, the hideous head, 

 cavernous mouth, vast square muzzle, slit-like nostrils, 

 the short, stumpy legs, terminating in four toes, set 

 in rounded hoofs, are familiar to most people who 

 have been to the Zoological Gardens or glanced at 

 the illustrations of a Natural History. The ears are 

 small and erect, the eyes prominent, bulging from the 

 plane of the face. The tail is small and laterally 

 compressed. Prominent in either jaw are the great 

 curved tusks, while from the lower jaw project 

 straight forward the fine and rounded incisors. At 

 one time the ivory of the hippopotamus was in 

 great request among dentists for the manufacture of 

 artificial teeth, and brought a good price. It is not 

 now in so much demand, and the price has fallen. 

 On the face, muzzle, neck, and tail are to be seen 

 strong bristles, but with these exceptions the skin of 

 the hippopotamus, which varies in its blotchy colour- 

 ing from flesh hue and a bluish tint to dirty brown, 

 is bare. Altogether the hippo, the undoubted 



