WITH FLASH-LIGHT AND RIFLE 



To raise and preserve young hippopotami is much 

 more easy than to bring up young elephants and rhi- 

 noceroses, yet there are few specimens of East African 

 river-hogs found in Europe. Grown-up animals have 

 been captured, but their transportation was never a 

 success, for one reason or another. One animal I know 

 of had been caught and successfully caged; when the 

 cage was upset by the beast itself, it was severely in- 

 jured as a result and soon died. 



The ancients were far ahead of us in this respect. 

 They captured and transported to Rome and other 

 cities, for their games in the arena, not only hippo- 

 potami, but large numbers of all the big African beasts. 



The scent of the river-hog is keen and its vigilance 

 great, and, while its big head contains but a small brain, 

 the animal is by no means stupid. I realized this when 

 I tried to take pictures of them at night by means of 

 the flash-light. Only after repeated failure did I suc- 

 ceed in my purpose. 



One who has no acquaintance with the clumsy ani- 

 mal in its native haunts, and has not studied its ways 

 and habits in the wilderness, will hardly fully agree with 

 me when I claim that the sense of smell of the hippo- 

 potamus is developed far beyond our experience and 

 understanding, and that while the brain of the animal 

 may be developed one-sidedly, it effectively uses it for 

 its self-protection and self-preservation. 



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