180 CLIMATE AND HABITS OF THE HIPPOPOTAMUS. CHAP. X. 



He states that, when the Dutch first colonized the Cape of 

 Good Hope, this animal abounded in all the great rivers, as 

 far south as the land extends; whereas, in 1849, they had all 

 disappeared, scarcely one remaining even within a moderate 

 distance of the colony. He also tells us that this species 

 evinces great sagacity in changing its quarters whenever 

 danger threatens, quitting every disti'ict invaded by settlers 

 bearing fii'e-arms. Bulky as they are, they can travel 

 sj^eedily for miles over land from one pool of a dried-up 

 river to another; but it is by water that their powers of 

 locomotion are surpassingly great, not only in rivers, but in 

 the sea, for they are far from confining themselves to fresh 

 water. Indeed, Dr. Smith finds it " difficult to decide whether, 

 during the daytime and Avhen not feeding, they prefer the 

 pools of rivers or the waters of the ocean for their abode." In 

 districts where they have been disturbed by man, they feed 

 almost entirely in the night, chiefly on certain kinds of grass, 

 but also on brushwood. But Dr. Smith relates that, in an ex- 

 pedition which he made north of Port JS'atal, he found them 

 swarming in all the rivers about the tropic of Capx'icorn. 

 Here they were often seen to have left their footprints on 

 the sands, entering or coming out of the salt water ; and on 

 one occasion Smith's party tried in vain to intercept a 

 female with her young as she was making her way to the sea. 

 Another female, which they had wounded in her precipitate 

 retreat to the sea, was afterwards shot in that element. 



The geologist, therefore, may freely speculate on the time 

 W'hen herds of hippoi^otami issued from North African rivers, 

 such as the Nile, and swam northwards in summer along the 

 coasts of the Mediterranean, or even occasionally visited 

 islands near the shore. Here and there they may have landed 

 to graze or browse, tarrying a while and afterwards continuing 

 their course northwards. Others may have swum in a few 

 summer days from rivers in the south of Spain or France to 



