438 THE HIPPOPOTAMUS 



during the night, at a short -distance from the ground. When 

 the animal comes in contact with the line, which is secured 

 on either side of the path by a small peg, it snaps at once, or is 

 disengaged by means of a trigger. The liberated downfall 

 instantly descends with the rapidity of lightning, and the 

 harpoon is driven deep into the back of the monster, who, 

 bellowing with pain, plunges into the river, where he soon after 

 dies in excruciating torments. 



Since 1850, the visitors to the Zoological Grardens in the 

 Regent's Park have become familiar with the huge form and 

 the curious manners of the hippopotamus, who, ever since the 

 days of ancient Eome, had not been seen in Europe. The 

 infant animal, a present of the Pacha of Egypt, had been torn 

 from its mother's breast, and was fed during the passage with 

 the milk of two cows and three goats, mixed with maize flour to a 

 porridge. But even this copious allowance hardly sufficed to 

 satisfy the hunger of the interesting stranger, who, on arriving, 

 became at once the lion of the gardens, the observed of all 

 observers, and though the novelties of the aquarium now draw 

 better " houses," the hippopotamus is still one of the chief 

 objects of attraction to strangers. His appetite increasing with 

 his years, one hundred pounds weight of provender — hay, corn, 

 carrots, cabbage — now daily goes down his huge throat, and he 

 thrives so well on this abundant fare, that it is very doubtful 

 whether he would have grown equally fat on the banks of his 

 native Nile. 



Unfortunately, his temper seems to have been soured by 

 captivity, for though so gentle when he made his debut that he 

 could not go to sleep without having his Arab keeper's feet to lay 

 his neck upon, he is now, at times, perfectly furious ; and rush- 

 ing at the massive oaken door of his enclosure, makes the 

 beams shake and quiver as though they were the lathes of an 

 ordinary paling. 



He has a peculiar dislike to the sight of working men, 

 especially if they are employed in doing any jobs about his 

 apartment. The smith of the establishment happening to be 

 passing one day along the iron gallery which runs on one side 

 of his bath, the animal leapt out of the water at least eight feet 

 high (I wish I had been there to see it), and would speedily 

 have demolished the whole construction, had not the terrified 

 man rapidly bolted out of his sight. 



M 



