80 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



or to cross from one piece of country to another. 

 The tender shoots of bushes and shrubs, grass, and 

 fruit seem to form its main dietary. Hidden up 

 during the day in some sheltered and secluded spot, 

 it sleeps heavily, and is then to be easily approached. 

 At all other times it is a most shy and wary beast. 

 These animals are apparently not very numerous. 

 Few, if any, Englishmen appear to have shot them, and 

 they can scarcely be classed among the game animals 

 likely to form interesting objects of sport. From 

 their very rarity and singularity it is, however, possible 

 that some enterprising Briton, rinding himself in West 

 Africa, may think it worth while to devote a few 

 days or even a week or two to their pursuit. The 

 flesh of these beasts is fairly good eating, that of the 

 young ones being tender, well tasted, and in flavour 

 somewhat like wild pig. The habitat of this pigmy 

 hippo is Liberia and the adjacent regions of the 

 West Coast ; but the interior of this country is so 

 little known that the exact range of the animal is by 

 no means clearly ascertained. The Liberian natives 

 know it as the sea-cow or water-cow ; in their tongue 

 mali or vey. 



[The pachydermatous animals have been con- 

 sidered, for the purposes of these volumes, as if they 

 were confined to Africa, though both elephants, of 

 which Mr. Gumming takes some passing notice, and 

 rhinoceros are found in various parts of Asia. The 

 shooting of them, however, in Asia is not of any 

 great importance, nor does it differ in any very 

 interesting particular from their shooting in Africa, 



