630 NATURAL HISTORY. 



rooting up the plants growing on the bottoms of the rivers and ponds. 

 The hippopotamus is not an agreeable beast ; indeed, it is one of the most 

 dangerous animals in Africa. It is easily excited, and even the sight of a 

 man will rouse it to an implacable frenzy. The natives, unless properly 

 armed, let them severely alone ; but when they do have a hunt, it is a 

 celebration for all the neighborhood. The animal is taken in various ways 

 in different regions, and the flesh affords the natives a good meal, while 

 the fat is fried out into a lard which will keep for a very long time, even 

 in the hottest weather, without becoming rancid. The flesh of the hippo- 

 potamus is not relished by most white people; some travelers praise it as 

 a great delicacy, but others, apparently with more truthfulness, say that it 

 is filled with sinews, and is scarcely more palatable or digestible than so 

 much rope. The roasted gelatinous skin — two inches thick — is consid- 

 ered the greatest delicacy. 



All the remaining Ungulates are ruminating, or cud-chewing forms, the 

 peculiarities of which were referred to a short distance above. Of these 

 the strangest members are the camels and their near relatives, the llamas 

 and alpacas of South America. 



The true camels are natives of the warm portions of the Old World, 

 and have long been domesticated by man. Indeed, except in cases where 

 they have escaped from domestication, and have returned to a condition of 

 nature, no wild camels are known. There are two distinct species, — the 

 common single-humped camel, or dromedary, and the two-humped, or 

 Bactrian camel, the most characteristic features of which are the number 

 of humps upon the back. These humps are really wonderful structures. 

 One would suppose that they were supported by bone, but such is not the 

 case ; the}' are simply mountains of fat, and serve as stores of food for a 

 time when food is scarce. In the regions inhabited by these animals there 

 are two seasons. — the wet and the dry. In the former the vegetation is 

 abundant and luxuriant, and then the camel has an abundance; but when 

 the dry season conies, everything becomes parched, and the plants that 

 survive are about as succulent, and scarcely more nutritious, than the 

 paper on which this volume is printed. Then it is that the store of fat 

 piled upon the back in the rainy season is drawn upon, and serves to tide 

 over the time of scarcity. 



The camel is a stupid and a vicious beast, about which no little sheer 

 nonsense has been written. It is a continual grumbler, and at times is 

 really dangerous to approach. [ts face is one of the ugliest things in 

 existence. It cannot be described, but must be seen to be appreciated. 

 We are apt to picture the whole of central Africa as teeming with long 

 caravans of camels, pursuing their way across the deserts, often going 



