60 LEAVES FROM THE 



girtli 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 necessary 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 exceed- 

 ingly difficult. An eye-witness assured Thunberg that 

 he watched a female hippopotamus which had gone up 

 from a neighbouring 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 creature ; 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 waggons, a female hippopotamus, 

 with her calf, came from some other pit or river, to take 

 up their quarters in that which Sparrman was then 

 blockading. 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 wi-ath, 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 waggons, 



