PACHYDERMATA. 183 



of the colony called sjamboks. Though generally 

 timid and inoffensive, it is said to be, when irritated, 

 a formidable, though clumsy adversary. Its voice 

 has been variously described. Sparrman calls it a 

 sharp, piercing cry, between grunting and neighing ; 

 Tuckey, who saw it in the Congo, says it is more 

 like the bellowing of a buffalo, than the neighing 

 of a horse ; while Burckhardt, in Nubia, calls it a 

 harsh and heavy sound, like the creaking or groan- 

 ing of a large wooden door. It appears to walk on 

 the bottom as on land, like the Water Ouzel among 

 birds. Le Vaillant says, " the river contained 

 many Hippopotami ; on all sides, I could hear them 

 bellow and blow. Anxious to observe them, I 

 mounted on the top of an elevated rock, which pro- 

 jected into the river, when I saw one walking at the 

 bottom of the water. I remarked that its colour, 

 which when dry is greyish, and when only damp 

 or moist appears bluish, seemed to be of a deep 

 blue." 



Captain Harris gives some interesting particulars 

 in his lively style. The animal abounds in the 

 Limpopo, " dividing the empire with its amphibious 

 neighbour the Crocodile. Throughout the night the 

 unwieldy monsters might be heard, snorting and 

 blowing during their aquatic gambols, and we not 

 unfrequently detected them in the act of sallying 

 from their reed-grown coverts, to graze by the serene 

 light of the moon, never, however, venturing to any 

 distance from the river, the stronghold to which they 

 betake themselves on the smallest alarm. Occasion- 



