THE HIPPOPOTAMUS. 239 



to wear a track four inches deep with their soft feet in this 

 excessively hard rock seems almost beyond calculation." 



Sir W. C. Harris, in his " Field Sports of Southern Africa," 

 says, speaking about his first experience of hippopotamus shoot- 

 ing : " Throughout the night the unwieldy monsters might be 

 heard snorting and blowing during their aquatic gambols, and we 

 not unfrequently detected them in the act of sallying from their 

 reed-grown coverts to graze by the serene light of the moon ; 

 never, however, venturing to any distance from the river, the 

 stronghold to which they betake themselves on the smallest alarm. 

 Occasionally, during the day, they were to be seen basking on the 

 shore amid ooze and mud ; but shots were more constantly to be 

 had at their uncouth heads when protruded from the water to 

 draw breath, and if killed, the body rose to the surface. Vulner- 

 able only behind the ear, however, or in the eye, which is placed 

 in a prominence, so as to resemble the garret-window of a Dutch 

 house, they require the perfection of rifle practice, and after a few 

 shots become exceedingly shy, exhibiting the snout only, and as 

 instantly withdrawing it. The flesh is delicious, resembling pork 

 in flavour, and abounding in fat, which in the colony is deservedly 

 esteemed the greatest of delicacies. The hide is upwards of an 

 inch and a half in thickness, and being scarcely flexible, may be 

 dragged in strips like the planks from a ship's side. Of these are 

 manufactured a superior description of sjamboh, an elastic whip, 

 an indispensable piece of furniture to every Boer proceeding on a 



journey." 



This gelatinous skin, when roasted, is considered a delicacy, 

 though many European hunters do not like it. In addition to 

 the articles made from it described by Harris, it is said, by another 

 traveller when in its raw state to make excellent handles for 

 knives and workmen's tools, for it shrinks as it dries and takes 

 firm hold upon the metal. Herodotus and Aristotle both assert 

 that the hide is so hard that spears and other missiles are formed 

 from it. This is doubtful; but Pliny's statement is probably 

 more correct, for he says that the hide is impenetrable except 

 after it has been soaked with water, and it is used for making 

 shields and helmets. All these ancient writers give, however, 



