20 



LEAVES FROM THE NOTE-BOOK OF A NATURALIST. 



crushing mill for the coarse, tough plants which 

 are transmitted to a stomach capable of contain- 

 ing, in a full grown hippopotamus, five or six 

 bushels, and a large intestine some eight inches 

 in diameter. Three bushels, at least, of half- 

 masticated vegetables have been taken from the 

 stomach and intestines of one half-grown. But it 

 is impossible to look upon these fearful teeth 

 without thinking of defensive and offensive wea- 

 pons, fit to correct, or even attack a crocodile, if 

 it should venture to take liberties, or approach too 

 near, in its plated armor. It is on record that, 

 when irritated or exasperated by wounds, the bite 

 of a hippopotamus has sunk a boat. Nor would 

 we rely so much upon its abstinence from animal 

 food, (though we do not give implicit credit to the 

 lamentable statement in Alexander's letter to 

 Aristotle, that the hippopotami, rushing from the 

 depths of the river, devoured the light troops 

 which he had sent to swim across,) to feel quite 

 certain that if such luckless wanderers were to 

 come in its way when it was hungry it would not 

 give a zest to its salads with a tender young croc- 

 odile or two. Major Denham states that the flesh 

 of the crocodile is extremely fine, that it has firm 

 green fat resembling the turtle, and that the cal- 

 lipee has the color, firmness and flavor, of the 

 finest veal. Mr. Bullock gave me the same ac- 

 count of the flesh of the alligator, as far as the 

 similitude to veal goes. I presume both travel- 

 lers were speaking of young lacertians ; for the 

 patriarchs give out a very strong musky smell. 



The formidable teeth of the hippopotamus are 

 masked when the animal is not excited, by im- 

 mense lips, and the body is wrapped in a coating 

 of fat, which, in its turn, is shielded by a thick, 

 smooth, tough hide of which more anon. 



The longest of the two hippopotami measured 

 by Zerenghi, was sixteen feet nine inches in 

 length ; its girth was fifteen feet ; its height six 

 feet and a half; the aperture of the mouth two 

 feet four in width ; and the tusks above a foot 

 long, clear of the sockets. 



About the same period is required to complete 

 the gestation of the hippopotamus as that neces- 

 sary for the production of man at least, so it is 

 said, and probably with truth. The female 

 calves on land ; and both mother and offspring 

 take to the water on the slightest alarm. This 

 renders the capture of the young exceedingly dif- 

 ficult. An eye-witness assured Thunberg that he 

 watched a female hippopotamus which had gone 

 op from a neighboring river, and lay motionless 

 with his company till the calf was brought forth, 

 when one of the party shot the poor mother dead. 

 Up sprang the Hottentots from their hidden lair, 

 and rushed forward to secure the new-born crea- 

 ture ; but its instinct did more for it than their 

 reason for them it gained the bank, threw itself 

 into the bosom of the friendly river, and escaped. 



Another calf, surprised by Sparrman's party, 

 was not so fortunate. On the 28th January, 

 1766, after sunrise, just as he and his Hottentots 

 were thinking of leaving their posts for their wag- 



ons, a female hippopotamus, with her calf, came 

 from some other pit or river, to take up their 

 quarters in that which Sparrman was then block- 

 ading. While she was waiting at a rather steep 

 part of the river 's bank, and looking after her 

 calf, which was lame, and consequently came on 

 but slowly, she received an ill-directed shot from 

 a Hottentot rejoicing in the name of " Flip" 

 whom Sparrman, in his wrath, designates as the 

 drowsiest of all sublunary beings, declaring he 

 was half asleep when he fired and immediately 

 plunged into the river. One of the Hottentots 

 then seized the calf, and held it by its hind legs 

 till the rest of the party came to his aid ; when 

 it was fast^ bound and borne in triumph to the 

 wagons, making a noise much like a hog that is 

 going to be killed, but more shrill and harsh. It 

 struggled hard, and was very unmanageable ; and, 

 though the Hottentots were of opinion that it was 

 not more than a fortnight, or at most three weeks, 

 old, it was three feet and a half in length, and 

 two feet high. When it was let loose it ceased 

 crying ; and after the Hottentots had passed their 

 hands several times over its nose, in order to ac- 

 custom it to their effluvia, it directly began to take 

 to them ; and in its hunger, poor thing, devoured 

 the droppings of the oxen. While it was alive, 

 Sparrman made a drawing of it, from which the 

 plate in The Swedish Transactions for 1778, and 

 that in his own Voyage, was taken, and then the 

 hapless orphan was killed, dissected and eaten, in 

 less than three hours. Sparrman found four 

 stomachs, the first nearly empty, containing only 

 a few lumps of cheese or curd ; in the second 

 were several clots of caseous matter, and a great 

 quantity of sand and mud ; the third contained 

 lumps of caseous matter of a yellow color, and 

 harder consistence than the others, together with 

 several leaves, quite whole and fresh, and some 

 dirt ; in the fourth was a good deal of dirt with a 

 small quantity of curds, which were whiter than 

 those in any of the other stomachs. The intes- 

 tinal canal was 109 feet long. 



This, be it remembered, was a baby. What a 

 supply must be requisite for the full-grown ani- 

 mal ! 



Bitterly does the husbandman, whose cultivated 

 fields lie in the neighborhood of a hippopotamus- 

 haunted river, rue its voracity, and describe it, 

 unconsciously, in terms long ago recorded by Ni- 

 cander* and Diodorus,f expressive of the ruin oc- 

 casioned to his crops by these enormous reapers. 

 They were regarded as the symbol of the destruc- 

 tion-dealing Typhon, and were worshipped, as 

 some nations worship the devil, from the terror 

 which they inspired. In modern times, every 

 settler and every native makes war upon them. 



*"H innov rov Ntfion vnio Sa'ir aiSaioiaaav 

 Boaxti, aqovQTiaiv di xaxip im^iMirat aoiijr. 



Theriac. 



t Diodorus says, that if the fecundity of the beast were 

 greater, it would be ruinous to the agriculture of Egypt ; 

 and Sonnini states, in the same spirit, that these animals 

 devastated whole tracts of country, and were as formida- 

 ble enemies to man as the crocodile. 



