48 ANIMAL LIFE IN AFRICA 



A few years ago, a gentleman owning a farm on the 

 Lomati River in the Transvaal, having a stream frontage, 

 suffered annually considerable pecuniary loss, owing to 

 the manner in which the local troop of hippos were 

 accustomed to raid his young mealies. Although legally 

 free to shoot the animals if caught in the act, he never- 

 theless refrained in the most laudable way from doing 

 so, and approached the Government with a view to 

 receiving relief. Eventually a sum was detached from 

 the Game Preservation Vote, and with it a barbed-wire 

 fence of three strands (only some three feet high) was 

 constructed, enclosing the part of the farm facing the 

 river. After the next harvest, the present writer had a 

 letter from the proprietor, wherein he expressed his 

 entire satisfaction with the fence, and stated that the 

 hippos had never made the slightest attempt to break 

 through this not very formidable impediment. Other 

 instances of a similar nature might be quoted to indicate 

 that there are other means of checking the inroads of 

 this animal than by destroying him ; but the latter 

 method is so much easier, and withal so far more in 

 harmony with traditional African custom than a little 

 hard work, unaccompanied by the tempting induce- 

 ment of meat and hide, that it is the one usually 

 adopted. 



The specific gravity of the hippopotamus is such that 

 it is able to walk along the bottoms of the rivers with ease, 

 rising to the surface to breathe at intervals of about five 

 or six minutes. It is an extraordinarily powerful swimmer 

 and can force its way upstream in face of the strongest 

 currents. 



The young hippo, while too small to defend itself, is 

 carried on its mother's back while in the water. Croco- 

 diles would no doubt be serious enemies to the calves 



