THE HIPPOPOTAMUS. 155 



which, he has no membranes between his toes, like the 

 beaver and otter ; and it is plain, that the great ease with 

 which he swims, is only owing to the great capacity of his 

 body, which only makes bulk for bulk, and is nearly of an 

 equal weight with the water. Besides, he remains a long 

 time under water, and walks at the bottom as well as he 

 does in the open air. When he quits it to graze upon 

 land, he eates sugarcanes, rushes, millet, rice, roots, &c., 

 of which he consumes and destroys a great quantity, and 

 does much injury to cultivated lands ; but. as he is more 

 timid upon earth than in the water, he is very easily driven 

 away ; and, as his legs are short, he cannot save himself 

 well by flight, if he is far from any water. His resource, 

 when he finds himself in danger, is to plunge himself into 

 the water, and go a great distance before he reappears. 

 He commonly retreats from his pursuers ; but if he is 

 wounded, he becomes irritated, and, immediately facing 

 about with great fury, rushes against the boats, seizes 

 them with his teeth, often tears pieces out of them, and 

 sometimes sinks them under water. " I have seen," says 

 a traveller, " a Hippopotamus open his mouth, fix one 

 tooth on the side of a boat, and another on the second 

 plank under the keel, that is, four feet distant from each 

 other, pierce the side through and through, and in this 

 manner sink the boat to the bottom. I have seen another, 

 lying by the side of the seashore, upon which the waves 

 had driven a shallop, heavily laden, which remained upon 

 his back dry, and which was again washed back by ano- 

 ther wave, without the animal appearing to have received 

 the least injury. When the Negroes go-a-fishing in their 

 canoes, and meet with a Hippopotamus, they throw fish to 

 him; and then he passes on, without disturbing their fish- 

 ery any more. He injures most when he can rest himself 

 against the earth ; but when he floats in the water he can 

 only bite. Once, when our shallop was near shore, I saw 

 one of them get underneath it, lift it above water upon his 



