THE HIPPOPOTAMUS. 363 



CHAPTER XII. 



THE HIPPOPOTAMUS. 



THE Hippopotamus is an animal as large, and not 

 less formidable, than the rhinoceros : its legs are 

 shorter, and its head rather more bulky, than that 

 of the animal last described. We have had but 

 few opportunities in Europe of examining this 

 formidable creature minutely; its dimensions, 

 however, have been pretty well ascertained by a 

 description given us by Zerenghi, an Italian sur- 

 geon, who procured one of them to be killed on 

 the banks of the river Nile. By his account it 

 appears, that this terrible animal, which chiefly 

 resides in the waters of that river, is above seven- 

 teen feet long, from the extremity of the snout 

 to the insertion of the tail ; above sixteen feet in 

 circumference round the body, and above seven 

 feet high : the head is near four feet long, and 

 above nine feet in circumference. The jaws 

 open about two feet wide, and the cutting teeth, 

 of which it hath four in each jaw, are above a foot 

 long.* 



Its feet in some measure resemble those of the 

 elephant, and are divided into four parts. The 



[* The hippopotamus has four fore-teeth in the upper jaw, disposed in 

 pairs at a distance from each other, and four prominent fore-teeth iu tire un- 

 der jaw, the intermediate ones being longest. There are two tusks in each 

 jaw, those of the under one being very long, and obliquely truncated ; in both 

 they stand solitary, and are recur vated : the feet are hoofed on the edges.] 



