220 EXPEDITION INTO [Chap. XXV. 



nished with elephantine tusks — or those ponderous 

 feet with which "the formidable and ferocious quad- 

 ruped" is wont "to trample down whole fields of 

 corn durinor a single night." Defenceless and in- 

 offensive, his shapeless carcass is but feebly sup- 

 ported upon short and disproportioned legs, and 

 his belly almost trailing upon the ground, he may 

 not inaptly be likened to an overgrown '^ prize pig." 

 The colour is pinkish brown, clouded and freckled 

 with a darker tint. Of many that we shot, the 

 largest measured less than five feet at the shoulder ; 

 and the reality falling so lamentably short of the 

 monstrous conception I had formed, the " river 

 horse," or " sea cow,"* was the first and indeed 

 the only South African quadruped in which I felt 

 disappointed. 



The country now literally presented the appear- 

 ance of a menagerie ; the host of rhinoceroses in 

 particular, that daily exhibited themselves, almost 

 exceeding belief. Whilst the camp was being 

 formed, an ugly head might be seen protruded from 

 every bush, and the possession of the ground was 

 often stoutly disputed. In the field, these animals 

 lost no opportunity of rendering themselves ob- 

 noxious — frequently charging at my elbow, when 

 in the act of drawing the trigger at some other 

 object — and pursuing our horses with indefatigable 

 and ludicrous industry, carrying their noses close 



* The Hippopotamus is termed by the colonists Zekoe, or Sea 

 Cow, the least applicable designation perhaps, not excepting that 

 of the River Horse, that could have been conferred. 



