THE GREAT HERBIVORES 171 
was a female hailing from the west coast of Africa, and 
weighed, it is true, only eighty pounds. The trunk, with its 
unusual contents, was delivered safely in Hamburg, and the 
hippopotamus is now to be seen in the Zoological Gardens at 
Hanover. 
It does not do to play with these great animals, for, like 
rhinoceroses, they are liable to violent fits of ill temper and 
are then extremely dangerous. Indeed, they are (as I have 
previously remarked when describing the methods of captur- 
ing the beasts) much less tractable than rhinoceroses, and do not 
“My name is Schmidt. I am travelling tor the firm of Hagenbeck. Permit me to 
show you my samples.” 
usually conceive that strong affection for their keepers which 
is so commonly to be observed in the case of the latter 
animals. The transport of these creatures is often a most 
difficult, not to say dangerous, operation. I once had an 
adventure with a female hippopotamus, much resembling the 
little incident with the rhinoceros at the London docks. It 
occurred about twenty-five years ago. I had just purchased 
the hippopotamus in question in South Germany, and on the 
animal’s arrival at Hamburg it was, of course, necessary to 
transfer it from the waggon to the stable which was to be its 
home. The usual method of procedure—the cosmopolitan 
