294 MAMMALIA—HIPPOPOTAMUS 
bellowing of the buffalo; but his usual voice resembles the neighing of a 
horse, from which, however, he differs in every other respect; and this fact, 
Wwe may presume, has been the sole reason for giving him the name of 
hippopotamus or river horse, as the howling of the lynx, which resembles 
that of the wolf, has occasioned him to be called the stag-lke wolf. The 
incisive teeth of the hippopotamus, and especially the two canine <eeth of 
the lower jaw, are very long, very strong, and of so hard a spbstaace, that 
they strike fire with a piece ofiron. This is probably what has given rise 
to the fable of the ancients, who have reported that the hippopotamus 
vomited fire. These canine teeth of this animal are white, so clear and so 
hard that they are preferable to ivory, for making artificial teeth. The 
molars are square, or rather longer on one side than the other, nearly like 
the grinders of a man, and so thick, that a single one weighs more than 
three pounds. The largest of the incisive, or the canine teeth, are twelve, 
and even sixteen inches in length, and sometimes weigh twelve or thirteen 
pounds each. The skin is in some parts two inches thick; and the Africans 
cut it into whip thongs, which, in consequence of their softness and pliability, 
they prefer to those procured from the rhinoceros’s hide. 
The male hippopotamus is about six’ feet nine inches long, from the 
extremity of the muzzle to the beginning of the tail; fifteen feet-in circum- 
ference, and six feet and a half in height. His legs are about two feet ten 
inches long; the length of the head three feet and a half, and eight feet and 
a half in circumference ; and the width of the mouth, two feet four inches. 
It, however, sometimes acquires much greater magnitude. . In the south of 
Africa, M. le Vaillant killed one which measured ten feet seven inches in 
length, and about nine feetin circumference. _ 
Thus powerfully armed, with a prodigioussstrength of body, he might 
render himself formidable to every animal; but he is naturally gentle, and 
appears never to be the aggressor, except when annoyed or wounded. It 
has been erroneously stated, that he commonly moves slowly on the land, 
but, on the contrary, when he has been injured, he has been known t: pur- 
sue persons for several hours, who escaped with great difficulty. He swims 
quicker than he runs, pursues the fish, and makes them his prey. Three or 
four of them are often seen at the bottom of a river, near some cataract 
forming a kind of line, and seizing upon such fish as are forced down by the 
violence of the stream. He delights much in the water, and stays there as 
willingly as upon land; notwithstanding which, he has no membranes be- 
tween his toes, like the beaver and otter; and it is plain, that the great ease 
with which he swims, is only owing to the great capacity of his body, which 
only makes bulk for bulk, and is nearly of an equal weight with the water. 
Besides, he remains a long time under water, and walks at the bottom as 
well as he does in the open air. When he quits it to graze upon land, he 
eats sugar-canes, rushes, millet, rice, roots, &c., of which he consumes and 
destroys a great quantity, and does much injury to cultivated lands; but, as 
