HIPPOPO TAMUS 4 1 1 



which the shot that wounded it was fired ; and occasionally, when the 

 sportsman has been close to the water's edge, these animals have 

 been known to leave the water and charge for a short distance. 

 Hippopotamuses are equally at home in salt and in fresh water ; and 

 the brackish water at the mouths of many East African rivers, as for 

 instance the Zambesi and Pangani, is a favourite resort. 



" Some African lakes, such as Lake Chilwa, partake more of the 

 nature of a marsh than of an actual sheet of water, their extent and 

 depth varying according as the season is wet or dry. In Lake Chilwa 

 it would seem as if hippopotamuses were only visitors, coming at 

 certain times of year, and travelling overland from the Shire river. 

 Lakes Mweru, Bangweolo, Nyasa, and Tanganyika all contain these 

 animals in more or less abundance. Another of these shallow, swampy 

 places, more marsh than open water, inhabited by these beasts is 

 Ngiri, lying to the north of Kilimanjaro. Here huge papyrus-reeds 

 come up to the edge of the dryer ground, and amongst this tangled 

 mass the grunting of the hippopotamuses may be heard by day ; while 

 at night the creatures leave their covert to wander in the open space 

 round the camping-ground. They are abundant in Lake Jip near 

 Kilimanjaro, but are said to be inferior in bulk and in the size of their 

 tusks to those met with in the rivers. Mr. F. J. Jackson considers 

 that the hippopotamuses on the Athi river have finer tusks than 

 those from any other locality in this part of Africa. That gentleman 

 found them more numerous in the river Nzoia in northern Kavirondo 

 than in any other place. In every other lake in East Africa 

 Naivasha, Baringo, Victoria, Rudolf, and Stephanie hippopotamuses 

 are found in abundance, as well as in all the rivers as far north as the 

 Guaro Nyiro. Between this and the Shebeyli river, which runs south 

 of the Ogaden, the country is [1899] little known to Europeans, but 

 in that river they again appear. 



" In the Nile it is doubtful if any exist in the main stream below 

 Khartum ; but in the Abyssinian tributaries, such as the Atbara, and 

 again in the minor tributaries like the Sittite\ Salaam, and Royan, the 

 species is (or was) to be found." 



A hippopotamus shot by Mr. Vaughan Kirby on the Shire river 

 measured 14 feet 2 inches in total length, of which 20 inches was 

 taken up by the tail ; the shoulder-height being 3 feet io| inches. 

 The record lengths for the lower tusk are 64^ and 5 I inches ; the 

 respective girths of these specimens being 7^ and 9 inches. 



