THE HIPPOPOTAMUS. 3Q9 



party during a recent voyage to explore the shores of Africa, 

 and came in frequent contact with these immense animals ;* 

 the muzzle broad - } the lips are hairy ; the eyes small and pro- 

 minent ; the ears small and pointed ; the legs very short, and 

 each foot with four toes terminated by little hoofs ; the tail 

 is short. 



Though a heavy animal it can run with great speed, and swim 

 and dive with great rapidity. Mr. Salt says, it cannot remain 

 under water more than five or six minutes at a time, being 

 obliged to rise to the surface to breathe in the course of some 

 such interval. During the day, it usually remains in the rivers, 

 or else concealed among the tall herbage on the shore, whence 

 on the approach of danger it immediately runs into the water. 

 At night, however, it ventures in land to eat its fill of grass, 

 corn, &c.; not being content with the marshy herbage and twigs 

 which are its ordinary food. Some idea of the havoc it can 

 make in a corn-field may be formed from the fact, that Burchell 

 found six bushels of masticated grass in the stomach of one, 

 and the animal is generally accompanied by others of its own 

 species, and they trample upon and thus destroy much more 

 than they devour. The natives, not possessing fire-arms, endea- 

 vour to keep them away from the crops by making a noise, and 

 keeping fires blazing all night. 



The hippopotamus is harmless if left alone, but when pro- 

 voked it is very ferocious, and, as its war cry immediately 

 summons its companions to join in the fray, it is very dangerous 

 to attack it in boats, which they either upset or crush to pieces. 

 The two Landers, when rowing up the Niger during a night of 

 intense darkness, only occasionally broken by awful flashes of 

 lightning, were placed in imminent danger by an incredible 

 number of hippopotami snorting and plunging round and within 

 a few feet of the canoe. The report of a gun, instead of fright- 

 ening them, only served to call up from the water and out of 

 the fens about as many more of their unwieldly brethren ; and 



* Narrative of Voyages to the Shores of Africa, under Capt.W. F. W. Owen, 

 vol, i. p. 110. 



