XIV 



THE HIPPOPOTAMUS 



THERE is no doubt that the "river-horse" will 

 have a longer lease of life than both the elephant 

 and the rhinoceros. This is not due to the fact that it 

 is less hunted, but simply because the endless marshes 

 of the Upper Nile and the vast swamps and waterways 

 of the Congo basin will preserve the animal indefinitely. 



It is long since the hippopotami occupied also the 

 northern part of Africa. The name of "Nile-horse" 

 was justified when the animals possessed the whole 

 valley of the river down to the delta. To-day they, 

 as well as the larger kind of crocodiles, are not seen any 

 longer below the cataracts. 



Professor Fraas, of Stuttgart, has discovered bones 

 in the valley of the Nile which prove the existence of 

 an ancestor to our hippopotamus in the Eocene time. 



These gigantic "river-hogs" — for they belong to the 

 swine family — are likely to die out speedily, not only 

 in the valleys of the East-African rivers, but also in the 

 big Central African lake region, although the English 

 government has issued ordinances calculated to preserve 



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