324 



The Living Animals of the World 



Photo by York <fc Son] [Hotting Hill. 



FEMALE HIPPOPOTAMUSES. 

 Exhibits A very characteristic attitude of the animal. 



strengthened, and platforms some- 

 times built to command naturally 

 weak places, and from these points 

 of vantage the poor animals were 

 speared when in their desperation 

 they tried to leave the pool. 

 Gradually the whole herd would be 

 speared or starved to death. 



Once, in August, 1880, I came 

 upon a native tribe engaged in 

 starving to death a herd of hippo- 

 potamuses in a pool of the Umniati 

 Kiver, in Northern Mashonaland. 

 When I came on the scene, there 

 were ten hippopotamuses still alive 

 in the pool. Eight of these appeared 

 to be standing on a sandbank in the 

 middle of the river, as more than 

 half their bodies were above the 

 water. They were all huddled up 

 together, their heads resting on each 

 other's bodies. Two others were 

 swimming about, each with a heavily 

 shafted assegai sticking in its back. 

 Besides these ten still living hippo- 

 potamuses two dead ones were being 

 cut up on the side of the pool, and 

 many more must already have been 



a herd of these animals and starving 

 them to death. As there is a very 

 rapid fall in the country through 

 which all the rivers run to the 

 Zambesi from the northern slope of 

 Mashonaland, these streams consist of 

 a series of deep, still pools (called 

 " sea-cow holes " by the old hunters), 

 from a hundred yards to more than 

 a mile in length, connected with one 

 another by shallow, swift-flowing water, 

 often running in several small streams 

 over the bed of the river. A herd of 

 hippopotamuses having been found 

 resting for the day in one of the 

 smaller pools, all the natives in the 

 district, men, women, and children, 

 would collect and build strong fences 

 across the shallows at each end. At 

 night large fires would be kept blazing 

 all round the pool and tom-toms 

 beaten incessantly, in order to prevent 

 the imprisoned animals from escaping. 

 Day after day the fences would be 



Photo by York <fc Son] [dotting Hill. 



A HIPPOPOTAMUS FAMILY FATHER, MOTHER, AND YOUNG. 



Hippopotamuses are very sociable animals, and are often to be met with in large 



herds. 



