244 WILD BEASTS AND THEIR WAYS CHAP. 



I was visited by a sheik of the Shillook tribe when camped 

 at a station ujxm the White Nile ; this old man was blind, and 

 lie was {Middled across the broad river by his son in a canoe formed 

 of the stems of an exceedingly light wood known as ambatch. 

 Upon the return journey, just as he had left me to recross the 

 river, a bull hippopotamus ascended from the bottom, seized the 

 frail canoe, together with the blind sheik, in his jaws, and reduced 

 the little vessel to a hundred fragments, killing the old man at the 

 same moment. I was standing upon the bank, and witnessed the 

 splash of the attack and the utter wreck of the canoe, while the 

 sheik's son swam in consternation to the shore. 



The skin of a bull hippopotamus is from If to 2 inches thick. 

 The entire hide when fresh would weigh about 5 cwts. Although 

 I never actually weighed a skin, I once skinned a big bull with 

 the intention of preserving it, and when, after great exertion, we 

 succeeded in loading a powerful camel, it could hardly carry the 

 weight. The usual desert load for a good camel is 500 Ibs., 

 therefore I concluded that the skin which caused a difficulty 

 must have far exceeded the weight to which the animal was 

 accustomed. 



It is difficult to decide the limit of time during which a hippo- 

 potamus can remain beneath the water. The nostrils have the 

 power of closing, with the action of valves, and the animal sinks 

 itself with the lungs inflated. The blood is nourished with oxygen 

 from this supply of air during immersion, and when the animal 

 appears upon the surface, it blows out the expended air with a 

 peculiar snort, accompanied by a jet of spray, very similar to the 

 manner in which the whale and other cetacea " spout." 



Precisely in the same way the hippopotamus blows off the 

 impure air, and again refills the lungs by an instantaneous effort 

 like the cetacea ; and by the time that the eye detects the jet of 

 spray, the lungs have been emptied and again inflated. 



I have very frequently observed, and taken the time by my 

 watch, but I have found that hippopotami vary in the times of 

 total immersion. Five minutes is about the usual interval of 

 breathing, when it becomes necessary for the animal to ascend for 

 a fresh supply of air, but this depends upon circumstances, as the 

 hippo can sustain ten minutes without fresh air, should it choose 

 to remain concealed. 



If a hippopotamus has been shot at several times, and is only 

 slightly wounded, it will remain as long as possible beneath the 

 water, and when it appears upon the surface, it will, in an artful 

 manner, only expose the great round nose ; this will just break 



