HIPPOPOTAMUS HUNTING. 201 



move the body give our reader an idea of the size and weight of this gigantic 

 beast. Strange to say the native women never track the hippo nor eat its meat 

 for fear of becoming barren. Females represented on opposite page are 

 women of the Kaviondo tribe engaged in dragging a hippopotamus head for 

 their chief to eat. The head is considered a morsel of "delicatessen." 



While the American safari stayed in the Sotik district two of its mem- 

 bers, Major Mearns and J. Alden Loring, the naturalist, engaged in an ex- 

 pedition to Mount Kenia and collected about 3,000 specimens of birds, in- 

 sects and other small animals. In his climb of the mountain Mr. Loring 

 reached an altitude of 16,500 feet. The specimens were taken to Mombasa to 

 be packed for shipment to America. 



Mount Kenia is an extinct volcano covered with numerous extensive glac- 

 iers. Its height is about 17,200 feet. This gigantic mountain rises gradually 

 by long gentle slopes and the American expedition found that the fertile soil 

 of the mountain sides had attracted numerous European settlers, who found 

 the cultivation of plants and vegetables suitable to the climate very profitable. 



The following instructive facts about the African hippopotamus will no 

 doubt interest our readers. 



It is related of a former United States Senator from Ohio that he was 

 one day at a circus and menagerie, where he was watching the feeding of 

 the hippopotamus, when a party, among whom was a dentist, approached. 

 The dentist laughingly said: 



"Many's the time I took molars like that fellow has, and put them in 

 the mouths of my patients." 



Pressed to explain what he meant, he stated that the tusks of the hippo- 

 potamus were of finest ivory and used in making false teeth. The Senator 

 had been an attentive listener to the conversation, and suddenly he was 

 seen to shudder and turn pale. Reaching into his mouth he took out a 

 plate, and, passing it to the dentist, asked whether the teeth in it were made 

 from the hippopotamus' tusks. When he was assured they were, he refused 

 to replace them, and never again wore false teeth. A peculiar lisping pre- 

 vented his making speeches after that, but no amount of persuasion sufficed 

 to overcome his disgust at the teeth. 



The hippopotamus is generally spoken of as a river horse, because that is 

 the translation of its Greek name, but "river hog" would be a more truthful 

 description. 



Hippopotami are bulky animals, with round, barrel-like bodies of great 



