154 THE HIPPOPOTAMUS. 



those of the lower jaw, are very long, cylindrical and fur 

 rowed. The canine teeth, which are also very long, are 

 crooked, prismatic, and sharp, like the tusks of a boar. 

 The molares are square, or rather longer on one side than 

 the other, nearly like the grinders of a man, and so thick, 

 that a single one weighs more than three pounds. The 

 largest of the incisive, or the canine teeth, are twelve, and 

 even sixteen inches in length, and sometimes weigh twelve 

 or thirteen pounds each. The skin is in some parts two 

 inches thick ; and the Africans cut it into whip thongs, 

 which, in consequence of their softness and pliability, they 

 prefer to those procured from the rhinoceros hide. 



The male Hippopotamus is about six feet nine inches 

 long, from the extremity of the muzzle to the beginning of 

 the tail ; fifteen feet in circumference, and six feet and a 

 half in height. His legs are about two feet ten inches 

 long; the length of the head, three feet and a half, and 

 eight feet and a half in circumference ; and the width of 

 the mouth, two feet four inches. It, however, sometimes 

 acquires much greater magnitude. In the south of Africa, 

 M. le Vaillant killed one which measured ten feet seven 

 inches in length, and about nine feet in circumference. 



Thus powerfully armed, with a prodigious strength of 

 body, he might render himself formidable to every ani- 

 mal ; but he is naturally gentle, and appears never to be 

 the aggressor, except when annoyed or wounded. It has 

 been erroneously stated, that he commonly moves slowly 

 on the land ; but, on the contrary, when he has been in- 

 jured, he has been known to pursue persons for several 

 hours, who escaped with great difficulty. He swims 

 quicker than he runs, pursues the fish, and makes them 

 his prey. Three or four of them are often seen at the 

 bottom of a river, near some cataract, forming a kind of a 

 line, and seizing upon such fish as are forced down by the 

 violence of the stream. He delights much in the water, 

 and stays there as willingly as upon land : notwithstanding 



