MAMMALIA—HIPPOPOTAMUS. 295 
he is more timil upon earth than in the water, he is very easily driven 
away; and, as his legs are short, he cannot save himself wall by flight, if he 
is far from any water. His resource, when he finds himself in danger, is to 
plunge himself into the water, and go a great distance before he reappears. 
He commonly retreats from his pursuers; but if he is wounded, he becomes 
irritated, and immediately facing about with great fury, rushes against the 
boats, seizes ther with his teeth, often tears pieces out of them, and somes 
times sinks them under water. ‘I have seen,” says a traveller, “an 
hippopotamus open his mouth, fix one tooth on the side of a boat and another 
to the second plank under the keel; that is, four feet distant from each other, 
pierce the side through and through, and in this manner sink the boat to 
the bottom. I have seen another lying by the side of the sea-shore, upon 
which the waves had driven a shallop heavily laden, which remained upon 
his back dry, and which was again washed back by another wave, without 
the animal appearing to have received the least injury. When the negroes 
go a fishing in their canoes, and meet with an hippopotamus, they throw 
fish to him; and then he passes on, without disturbing their fishery any 
more. He injures most when he can rest himself against the earth; but 
when he floats in the water, he canonly bite. Once, when our shallop was 
near shore, I saw one of them get underneath it, lift it above water upon 
his back, and overset it with six men who were in it; but fortunately they 
received no hurt.” 
“We dare not,” says another traveller, “irritate the hippopotamus in the 
water, since an adventure happened, which was near proving fatal to three 
men. They were going in a small canoe, to kill one in a river where there 
was about eight or ten feet water. After they had discovered him walking 
at the bottom, according to his custom, they wounded him with a long lance, 
which so greatly enraged him, that he rose immediately to the surface of the 
water, regarded them with a terrible look, opened his mouth, and, at one 
bite, took a great piece out of the side of the canoe, and had very nearly 
overturned it; but he replunged, almost directly, to the bottom of the water.” 
These animals are only numerous in some parts of the world; it even 
appears, that the species is confined to particular climates, and seldom to be 
met with, but in the rivers of Africa. Dutch travellers say that they bear 
three or four young ones; but this appears very suspicious, as the hippopota- 
mus is of an enormous bulk; he is in the class of the elephant, the rhinoce- 
ros, the whale, and all other great animals, who bring forth but one; and 
this analogy appears more certain than all the testimonies that they have 
exhibited. The female brings forth her young upon land, and the calf, at 
the instant when it comes into the world, will fly to the water for shelter if 
pursued; a circumstance which Thunberg notices as a remarkable instance 
of pure instinct. Major Denham furnishes us with the following amusing 
account : — 
“Tt was intended this evening to have killed an hippopotamus, an animal 
