HERONS AM) BLACK AM) WHITE IBISES FLASHED OUT FROM THE 

 MONOTONOUS GREEN OF THE REEDS 



XIII 



The Hippopotamus 



" I ^ HE hippopotamus will survive both the elephant 

 -L and the rhinoceros in Africa, not only because 

 it is hunted less, but also because one of its chief 

 haunts, the immense swamps of West Africa, is very 

 inaccessible. 



It is long now since hippopotamuses were plentiful in 

 the north of Africa. They used to be called the Nile- 

 horse, because of the numbers to be seen, not merely 

 in the river, but on its delta. Nowadays, not only the 

 hippopotamus, but also to a great extent the crocodile, 

 have disappeared from the Nile, or are to be found in it 

 only above Khartum. 



Quite recently there has been discovered in the Nile ' 

 Valley, bones of swine-like extinct animals in which 

 palaeontologists recognise forbears of the hippopotamus. 

 Professor Fraas of Stuttgart it was who found them, and 

 he is now engaged in examining them. 



261 



