xii THE HIPPOPOTAMUS 253 



impossible to know what happened beneath the water, but, as the 

 cows did not reappear, they must have been held at the bottom for 

 a considerable time, until quite drowned. 



It may be generally accepted that the hippopotamus is a fierce 

 and dangerous animal when in the water, and that it will frequently 

 attack boats, especially at night, or any other object that may 

 attract its senseless fury, but when on land it very rarely ventures 

 to provoke a contest ; on the contrary, it prefers retreat, and be- 

 takes itself precipitately to the river's bed, where it feels secure 

 from molestation. 



The ivory having decreased in value, owing to the American 

 invention of enamel for artificial teeth, and the demand for its hide 

 having been reduced by the British interference in Egypt, where 

 the courbatch (hippopotamus whip) has been abolished, the hippo- 

 potamus will remain the undisturbed inhabitant of the great White 

 Nile, monarch of the river ; upon which fifteen English steamers 

 were plying when the Soudan was abandoned by the despotic order 

 of Great Britain, and handed back to savagedom and wild beasts. 



