752 



HIPPOPOTAMUS. 



ture as the instant change from midsummer to mid- 

 winter would be in our latitudes, and thus the animal 

 requires a natural protection against it, so that the 

 muscles, and especially the vital organs, may not be 

 subjected to violent shocks. 



It is true that the hippopotamus seldom comes to 

 the land, or even to the surface of the water, during 

 the day, but still the night air iu such places is much 

 warmer than the water. Fat, when melted, does not 

 resist the passage of the action of heat so much as 

 when it is not, and the readiness with which the fat 

 of this animal melts in the sun may be one of the 

 causes which keeps it in the water during the day ; 

 for, when the fat of a living animal passes into oil on 

 or in its body, the consequences are very serious, 

 as the cellular tissue in which the fat is enclosed 

 soon putrefies, and spreads corruption through the j 

 system. The colour of the skin, which, though it 

 varies a good deal indifferent individuals, is generally 

 of a dingy bluish black, also tends to keep these ani- 

 mals under water during the heat of the day. This 

 colour is one which rapidly absorbs the heat; 

 and it is worthy of remark, that this is the pre- 

 vailing colour of the upper part of almost all those 

 mammalia which inhabit the waters, and in this uni- 

 formity of colour we must presume that there is a 

 uniformity of use. From this habit of keeping the 

 principal part of the body under water during the 

 day, which appears to be a necessary result of the 

 structure of the hippopotamus, it is rarely seen, and 

 comparatively little is known of it in proportion to 

 its numbers. We cannot positively state even what 

 is the style and rate of its march upon land ; and we 

 say that it must be slow, rather from our judgment of 

 the power of the animal, than from the fact as 

 actually observed. For the same reason we know 

 little of its habits when breeding, or whether the 

 males are polygamous or not. The circumstance of 

 their fighting would lead us to conclude that they are 

 polygamous, but still the conclusion is only a cou- 

 iectural one. For similar reasons the animal is seldom 

 shot, unless by very expert marksmen. Large as it 

 is, it offers but a small mark to the sportsman ; for, 

 in general, the nose, the eyes, and the ears, are the 

 only parts above the surface, and these are all so near 

 the plane of the face, that that is very little elevated. 

 A bullet, unless it happens to hit very obliquely, will 

 readily penetrate the skin at any part ; but it is 

 difficult to get any aim except an oblique one at the 

 visible part ; and if the part under the water is aimed 

 at, the bullet is very apt to glance. 



When only the face of the animal is above the 

 water, the straight outline and erect ears give it some 

 resemblance to the face of a horse, that is in the 

 general contour. This may have been the reason 

 why it at first got the name of the river-horse ; but a 

 very small portion more of the animal appearing de- 

 stroys all similarity. The " sea-cow" of the boors of 

 Southern Africa is still worse, for it has no connection 

 whatever with any of the ruminant animals. Some 

 have proposed to call it a hog; but although that is 

 one step nearer than the horse, it also gives a false 

 notion of the animal, because it has none of the 

 habits, and very little of the appearance of a pig. 



Wherever the hippopotamus is seen attempts are 

 made to kill it, if the people are in possession of any 

 arms fit for the purpose. This is done in cultivated 

 districts, chiefly on account of the mischief that it 

 does ; but the flesh, the skin, and the teeth are all of \ 



some value. We have already mentioned its use as food. 

 The skin is not of much use as leather, and in cold 

 climates it <>'ets hard and brittle ; but the skins ol those 

 that are killed in the Nile are made into a kind of 

 whips, which are held in considerable estimation in 

 that country. For this purpose the recent skin is 

 cut into triangular stripes, about five or six feet long, 

 pointed at the one extremity, and gradually increasing 

 in breadth till, at the other extremity, the breadth is 

 equal to the circumference of the intended whip at 

 the thick end. The stripe is then rolled into a conical 

 pipe, tied firmly together, and dried in the sun, after 

 which it keeps its shape, and is light, dry, and elastic. 

 The teeth, that is the large canines, are more rcmark- 

 able for the compactness of their bone or ivory, and the 

 hardness and beauty of them, than the teeth of almost 

 any other animals. They are not teeth growing from 

 roots, but tusks placed on cores, and hollow for about 

 half their length, like the tusks of elephants. As is 

 the case with all tusks which grow in this manner, 

 such as those of the elephant and the morse, tne 

 substance of them is ivory, but it is ivory of very fine 

 grain and remarkably hard and tough. The enamel, 

 of which there is hardly a trace iu the tusks of the 

 elephant, is very thick, and so hard that it strikes 

 fire with steel. They are in fact the strongest of all 

 known animal substances : they are very much sought 

 after by dentists for making artificial teeth, and when 

 a piece can be had of such a form as that the teeth 

 can be worked in the enamel, they preserve their 

 colour almost as well as the natural teeth. On this 

 account the tooth sells for about a guinea and a half 

 a pound, though half the tooth is unfit for the dentist's 

 purpose ; and from its great solidity it is very heavy 

 in proportion to its bulk. The teeth of the mouse 

 come nearest, to these, but they are very inferior. 



The female hippopotamus is said to go nine months 

 with young, though the fact has not been ascertained 

 with precision ; and the young are very soon able to 

 take the water, in which the females arc well able to 

 defend them from enemies. 



Though this singular genus of animals is now 

 reduced to one species, and that existing merely as a 

 fragment in one part of the world, and obviously upon 

 the decline, yet the remains which are met with in 

 the earth show that it has once been a general and 

 characteristic inhabitant of at least all the temperate 

 parts of the eastern continent. Of the middle ot 

 Asia, indeed, we cannot say much ; first, because that 

 remote and extensive country is now a. desert, and, 

 secondly, because it appears to be the native locality 1 

 of the horse, which is the least aquatic of all the j 

 Pachydermata. In Europe there are, however, theij 

 remains of not fewer than four species, varying so 

 much in size that we may suppose them to have been 

 adapted for rivers of all magnitudes, from the wide 4 

 sweeping flood to the small brook ; and these are not 

 confined to one locality, but found in Italy, in Ger- 

 many, in France, and in England. That they have 

 not been met with in other places, where the geolo- 

 gical character of the country indicates that the ani- 

 mals could have resided, arises more from the want 

 of observation than from any thing else. The obser- 

 vation is no doubt a matter of great difficulty, for no 

 human industry can search the ten thousandth part 

 of the matter deposited even in one extensive valley ; 

 then what can be hoped in the case of what have 

 obviously been the general sepulchres of nature for 

 thousands of years. 



