THE PACHYDERMS 75 



behemoth of Scripture, is one of the strangest, 

 crudest, and most monstrous looking of all the 

 strange forms with which Africa is provided in the 

 way of animal life. The creature seems to belong, 

 even more than the elephant, the rhinoceros, and the 

 crocodile, to some far remote era of time, and its 

 presence in this modern age of steam and electricity 

 offers one of the greatest incongruities possible to 

 imagine. One associates the hippo with the Pharaohs, 

 the Nile of 5000 years ago, and a yet more ancient 

 world ; it seems impossible to identify it with 

 modern man and modern civilisation. Yet the 

 thing is happening, and the old-world monster has 

 become in many rivers and on many lakes of Africa 

 perfectly familiar with the steam launch and the stern 

 wheeler. 



In spite of its monstrous shape and appearance, 

 the hippopotamus is wonderfully fitted for its aquatic 

 existence. The eyes and nostrils, set as they are in 

 the highest portions of the head, enable the animal to 

 see and breathe comfortably without exposing more 

 than a minute portion of its bulk. Where it has 

 reason to be yet more cautious, it shows no more 

 than its nostrils, as it comes up for a brief space to 

 take in air. And where it is persecuted in a narrow 

 and deep river, where the gunner can shoot from 

 either bank, it will conceal itself completely by lying 

 sunk near the bottom, approaching some overhanging 

 bushes occasionally, under cover of which it can take 

 breath without being observed. Where it has reason 

 to dread being shot at, the hippo will remain under 



