320 



The Living Animals of the World 



to rapidly cut down great quantities of the coarse grass and reeds upon which these animals 

 exclusively feed when living in uninhabited countries. When, however, their haunts are in 

 the neighbourhood of native villages, they often commit great havoc in the corn-fields of the 

 inhabitants, trampling down as much as they eat; and it was their fondness for sugar-cane 

 which brought about the destruction of the last herd of hippopotamuses surviving in Natal. 



The lower canine teeth or tusks of the hippopotamus grow to a great size, and in bulls 

 may weigh from 4 Ibs. to 7 Ibs. each. They are curved in shape, and when extracted from 

 the jaw form a complete half-circle, and have been known to measure upwards of 30 inches 

 over the curve. In life, however, not more than a third of their length protrudes beyond 

 the gums. 



During the daytime hippopotamuses are seldom met with out of the water. They lie and 

 doze all day long in the deep pools of the rivers they frequent, with only their eyes, ears, 

 and nostrils above the surface, or else bask in the sun on the tail of a sandbank, looking like 

 so many gigantic pigs with their bodies only partially submerged. Sometimes they will lie 

 and sleep entirely out of water amongst reeds. I have seen them feeding in the reed-beds 

 of the great swamps of the Chobi just at sundown, but as a rule they do not leave the water 



until after dark. At night 

 they often wander far afield, 

 especially in the rainy season, 

 in search of suitable food ; 

 and after having been fired 

 at and frightened, I have 

 known a herd of hippopota- 

 muses to travel at least five- 

 and-twenty miles along the 

 course of a river during the 

 ensuing night, in order to 

 reach a larger and deeper pool 

 than the one in which they 

 had been molested. 



Although the hippopota- 

 mus is thoroughly at home 

 in the hottest parts of Africa, 

 and appears to thrive in the 

 tepid waters of all the rivers 



which flow through the malarious coast regions of the tropical portions of that continent, 

 it is also found at a considerable altitude above the sea, and in quite small streams where 

 the temperature of the water during the winter months cannot be many degrees above 

 freezing-point. I have personally met with hippopotamuses in the Manyami River, not far from 

 the present town of Salisbury, in Mashonaland. The country there has an altitude of about 

 5,000 feet above sea-level ; and the water was so cold on the last occasion on which I came 

 across the animals in question July, 1887 that, if a basinful was left out during the night, 

 ice quite an eighth of an inch in thickness would be formed over it before morning. There 

 was, however, never any ice on the river itself. During the rainy season, when the grass 

 and reeds are green and succulent, hippopotamuses become enormously fat, especially in the 

 higher and colder portions of their range, and retain a good deal of their fat right through 

 the driest season of the year. Old bulls are usually very lean ; but I have seen cows the 

 greater part of whose carcases, after the skin had been stripped off, was covered with a layer 

 of fat from 1 inch to 2 inches in thickness. The meat of these animals is dark red in 

 colour, and more like beef than pork. To my mind, that of a young animal is most 

 excellent in flavour, and far preferable to that of a lean antelope. The fat, when prepared, is 

 as good as the best lard, from which, indeed, it is hardly distinguishable. The skin of the 



Photo by Lord Delamere] 



[NortJiwich. 



HIPPOPOTAMUSES BATHING. 



A. hippopotamus stays under water for about 2J minutes at a time, and then just shows part of its 

 head above water while it draws a fresh breath. 



