MAM MI FERGUS ANIMALS. 007 



naked and not unlike that of the Hog. Its skin, 

 which is of a dusky color, is remarkably thick 

 and strong, and so resisting, that the largest mus- 

 ket ball can hardly penetrate it. 



With such a prodigious strength of body, the 

 Hippopotamus ought to be a match for every 

 other animal ; since its bulk has been found so 

 great, that after being killed in the water, it has 

 required twelve Oxen to draw it in shore ; 

 yet it is naturally so timid, that it makes no at- 

 tack until it has been wounded, and then it 

 furiously assaults the boats sent in pursuit of it, 

 and will often sink them by biting large pieces 

 out of their sides. 



It is an inhabitant of the Rivers in the interi- 

 or parts of Africa from the Niger to the Bengal 

 River, many miles to the North of the Cape of 

 Good Hope, and in those streams it delights to 

 live ; * leaving the water only during the night 

 in search of pasturage in which it consumes 

 great quantities of Sugar Canes, Rice, Millett, 

 and other vegetable productions ; feeding also 

 upon the roots of trees, which it loosens up 

 with its great tusks, and thus doing altogether 

 great damage in cultivated countries, but avoid- 

 ing animal food of every kind. When alarmed, 

 it retires rapidly to the river, where it sinks to, 



* It lias also been found in the Nile in upper Egypt, 

 an.d in the fens and lakes of Ethiopia contiguous to that River. 



