CREATURES OF THE WILDERNESS 187 



HIPPOPOTAMUS 



The hippopotamus is one of those few really 

 ugly beasts in Nature which, if we did not 

 know it to be real, we might think of as a 

 creature seen only in nightmares. When we 

 come to think of it, there are not very many 

 quadrupeds at all events so disgusting to look 

 at. The wart-hog is another, and the Tas- 

 manian devil a third. In its way, however, 

 the hippopotamus is without a rival, since not 

 only is its face, particularly with the jaws open, 

 among the most uncouth in all creation, but, 

 seeing that it weighs, when full-grown, three 

 or four tons, and that its length and girth are 

 about the same, or approximately twelve feet, 

 it has also the most ungainly figure in existence, 

 being, in fact, three times as long as it is high. 

 The hide is devoid of hair and studded with 

 warts. The eyes are small, as are also the 

 ears, which stand erect. Our name for the 

 animal means " river-horse," and the Germans, 

 with their usual passion for detail, call it by a 

 word meaning " Nile-horse" ; yet it is about as 

 unlike a horse as any creature well could be. 



There is a much smaller kind in West Africa, 

 a fairy-like creature weighing only three or 

 four hundredweight, and little seems to be 

 known of its habits. The larger species is no 

 longer to be found in South Africa, where it 



