232 WILD ANIMALS. 



animal, althougli, quoting Dr. Livingstone, " certain elderly males, 

 wtich liave been expelled tte community, become soured in 

 theu- temper, and attack every one tbat passes near them. One 

 of these ' bachelors ' issued out of his lair, and putting down his 

 head ran after our company with considerable speed; another 

 before we arrived had smashed to pieces a canoe by a blow from 

 his hind-foot. I was informed by my men that, in the event of a 

 similar assault, the proper course was to plunge to the bottom of 

 the river and remain there a few seconds, because the animal after 

 breaking a canoe always looks for the people on the surface, and 

 if he finds none soon moves off. I have seen some frightful 

 gashes made on the legs of men who were unable to dive. The 

 hippopotamus uses his teeth against foes as an offensive weapon, 

 but is altogether a herbivorous feeder." 



Mr. Robert Moffat, the African missionary, states that on one 

 occasion he was attacked by one of these animals, and another 

 time, when speaking of a man he saw trying to escape an en- 

 raged hippopotamus, says " the sea-lion seized him, and literally 

 severed his body in two with its monstrous jaws." 



When in the water the animals are so formidable that care has 

 to be taken to avoid passing near or through a herd of them, and 

 in approaching near their haunts the greatest caution has to be 

 exercised, for they have the power of grasping a canoe in their 

 extensive jaws, and so wrecking it. 



In a letter dated Zanzibar, 18th of February, 1873, reporting 

 the progress of Sir Bartle Frere's expedition, which was published 

 in the Times about a month later, there is the following para- 

 graph : " With regard to the hippopotami, their numbers in the 

 coast rivers make navigation in small boats anything but safe and 

 easy. Not content with occasionally attempting an entrance over 

 the gunwale of the boat, they often try to stave the boat in from 

 underneath. An accident of this sort happened to two gentlemen 

 of Sir Bartle Frere's suite in the river near Dar-es-Salkam. The 

 boat was suddenly stove in from underneath, two large tusks 

 made two gaping holes, through which the water rushed in, and 

 they had barely time to reach the shore before sinking, not having 

 been able to get a shot at their invisible enemy." 



