THE HIPPOPOTAMUS 



A family of Hippos were preserved in Sea Cow 

 Lake, near Durban, but owing to complaints by 

 neighbouring farmers of damage done to their 

 crops, and to save the trifling cost of fencing, which 

 was estimated at ^^700, the then Government 

 allowed them to be destroyed. This was in the 

 year 1898. At the time I protested most strongly 

 through the medium of the public Press, and 

 interviewed public men, but without success. At 

 one time a solitary bull inhabited this lake. He 

 disappeared for nearly three years, and reappeared 

 with a wife and reared a family of three. He 

 evidently made his way to the sea, and thence up 

 the coast to the haunts of his kind at St. Lucia 

 Bay. It is a common practice of these animals to 

 travel along the sea-shore from one river mouth to 

 another ; and, no doubt, having first observed them 

 disporting themselves, and lying about the sands at 

 the mouth of the rivers, the early settlers dubbed 

 them Sea Cows. They associate in pairs, and in 

 herds of sometimes thirty and more, and are aquatic 

 in their habits, only venturing away from their 

 watery haunts in search of food. 



In localities where they are under Government 

 protection, and in the remote districts where the 

 hunter rarely penetrates, they may be seen during 

 the day lying asleep in shallow water or on the 

 mud and sand-banks. When persecuted they are 

 obliged, in self-defence, to give up this pleasant 

 relaxation and sleep in the deep water, floating with 



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