176 NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



Mode of taking the hippopotamus. 



saturated, swell so much as very soon afterwards 

 to kill him. 



" The hippopotamus," says Dr. Sparrrnan, " is 

 not so quick in its pace on land as the generality 

 of the larger quadrupeds, though, perhaps, it is 

 not so slow and heavy as M. de Buffon describes 

 it to be; for both the Hottentots and Colonists 

 consider it very dangerous to meet a hippopota- 

 mus out of the water ; especially as, according to 

 report, they had had a recent instance of one of 

 these animals, having for several hours pursued 

 a Hottentot, who found it very difficult to make 

 his escape." 



Among the Caffres in the south of Africa, this 

 animal is sometimes taken in pits made in the 

 paths that lead to his haunts. But his gait, when 

 undisturbed, is generally so slow and cautious, 

 that he often smells out the snare, and avoids it. 

 The most certain method is to watch him at 

 night, behind a bush close to his path ; and, as 

 he passes, to wound him in the tendons of the 

 knee-joint, by which he is immediately lamed and 

 rendered unable to escape the numerous hunters 

 that afterwards attack him. 



A person of respectability at the Cape of Good 

 Hope informed Professor Thunberg, that as he 

 and a party were on a hunting expedition, they 

 observed a female hippopotamus come from one 

 of the rivers, and retire to a little distance from 

 its bank, in order to calve. They lay still in the 

 bushes till the calf and its mother made their ap- 



