xir THE HIPPOPOTAMUS 243 



with an axe, showers of sparks are occasionally produced, when the 

 steel strikes the tusk obliquely. 



The front teeth of both jaws appear to be specially arranged as 

 scarifiers for raking and tearing out roots of aquatic plants, or for 

 gathering tangled grasses from the river's bank. Although the 

 skull is of prodigious size, the brain is very small, in no case ex- 

 ceeding the size of a man's fist. The eyes are large, and are sur- 

 mounted by a projecting arch of bone, which is a peculiar feature ; 

 the ears are small, and the animal has a habit of shaking them 

 with great rapidity, to rid them of water when it first emerges 

 upon the surface. The tail is exceedingly short, and is flat upon 

 the sides ; this can be of no service practically, as it is too small to 

 act as a rudder when swimming, and Nature can only have added 

 it as the termination of the iigliest of her handiworks. The nose 

 of the hippopotamus is an enormous protuberance, which includes 

 a firm and cartilaginous upper lip. 



Stupidly ferocious when in the water, the bull will frequently 

 attack a boat without the slightest provocation ; but if disturbed 

 when on land, it will immediately retreat to the concealment of 

 the river's depths by plunging off the bank. I have seen them 

 recklessly jump or tumble from a precipitous bank 12 or 16 feet 

 in height, and fall into the water with an extraordinary commotion, 

 when suddenly intruded upon in a mid-day's sleep beneath some 

 shady trees. 



There are exceptions to all rules, and although this stupid 

 animal will generally retreat from man, I have known two instances 

 when fatal accidents occurred on shore. One of these was upon 

 the Atbara river, during the dry season, when the Arabs cultivated 

 water-melons upon the exhausted bed, near a large and deep pool, 

 from which they obtained the water necessary for irrigation. The 

 hippopotami amused themselves with munching ripe water-melons 

 during the night, and when the proprieter appeared to drive them 

 from his garden, he was immediately seized in the jaws of a well- 

 known bull and destroyed by one crunch of the terrible rows of 

 teeth. 



On another occasion I had wounded a very ferocious bull that 

 was an old enemy of the natives, near a village on the borders of 

 the White Nile. On the day following they went in search, and 

 discovered the animal lying upon a sandbank in a shallow portion 

 of the river. Considering that it was helpless, they descended 

 the bank, and approached it with their spears, but it immediately 

 rushed upon the foremost man, and bit him into halves by seizing 

 him at the waist. 



