A JANUARY DAY AT HE GENTS PARK. 7 



This is a most interesting performance, especially to a 

 practical swimmer, and is probably achieved by com- 

 pressing the muscles of the chest so as to reduce the 

 bulk when the creature desires to sink, and allowing 

 itself to expand to its former dimensions when it wants 

 to rise. 



The native habits of this huge animal are well ex- 

 hibited in the magnificent male specimen now in the 

 gardens, and it is curious to see how wonderfully the 

 creature is fitted for an aquatic existence. Heavy, 

 corpulent, and unwieldy as it appears on land, its legs 

 set so widely apart that when it walks in high grass the 

 limbs of each side make a separate path, leaving a ridge 

 of untrodden grass between them, it assumes quite 

 another aspect as soon as it enters the water, and, in the 

 easy playfulness and almost grace of its movements, 

 affords as great a contrast to its former clumsiness as 

 does the swan proudly sailing on the lake to the same 

 bird uncouthly waddling on the shore. 



As the tank in the enclosure was so thickly covered 

 with ice that the animal might have practised sliding, 

 but would have found swimming next to impossible, 

 the hippopotamus was forced to content himself with 

 the small tank within his house, where the water 

 is kept at a moderate temperature by artificial means, 

 and the atmosphere is such as this delicate though 

 monstrous animal can breathe with safety. The atten- 

 dants are peculiarly careful of so valuable a creature, 

 and have made arrangements for cleansing its house 



