18 NATURAL FEATtTRES OF AFRICA. 



roar. Yet both his courage and fierceness have, it is said, 

 been overrated ; and the man who can undauntedly face 

 him, or evade his first dreadful spring, rarely falls his victim. 

 Wider ravages are committed by the hyena, not the strong- 

 est, but the most ferocious and untameable of all the beasts 

 of prey. These creatures, by moving in numerous bands, 

 achieve what is beyond the single strength of the greater 

 animals ; they burst with mighty inroad into the cities, and 

 have even carried by storm fortified enclosures. The ele- 

 phant roams in vast herds through the densely-wooded 

 tracts of the interior, disputing with the lion the rank of 

 king of the lower creation ; matchless in bulk and strength, 

 yet tranquil, majestic, peaceful, led in troops under the 

 guidance of the most ancient of the number, having a social 

 and almost moral existence. He attacks neither man nor 

 beast. The human being is more frequently the aggressor, 

 not only with the view of protecting the fruits of the earth, 

 but also in order to obtain the bony substance composing 

 his tusks, which, under the name of ivor}^, forms one of the 

 most valued articles of African trade. The prodigious 

 strength of the elephant, his almost impenetrable hide, his 

 rapid though unwieldy movements, render him a most peril- 

 ous object of attack, even to the boldest hunters ; so that 

 pits and snares of various kinds are the usual modes by 

 which his capture is efl!ected. Instead of the tiger, Africa 

 has the leopard and the panther; belonging, however, only 

 to certain of its districts. 



In the large and broad rivers of Africa, and through the 

 immense forests which overshadow them, a race of amphi- 

 bious animals of monstrous form and size display their un- 

 wieldy figures. The rhinoceros, though not strictly amphi- 

 bious, slowly traverses marshes and swampy grounds, and 

 almost equals the elephant in strength and defensive pow- 

 ers, but wants his stature, his dignity, and his wisdom. 

 The single or double horn with which he defends himsjj£is 

 an article of commerce in the East, though not valu^JPIn 

 Europe. A still huger shape is that of the hippopotamus, 

 or river-horse, fitted alike to stalk on land, to march along 

 the bottom of the waters, or to swim on their surface. He 

 is slow, ponderous, gentle ; yet when annoyed, either by de- 

 sign or accident, his wrath is terrible ; he rushes up from 

 his watery retreat, and by merely striking with his enoi* 



