284 THE LIVING ANIMALS OF THE WORLD 
to rapidly cut down great quantities of the coarse grass and reeds upon which these animals 
exclusively feed when living in uninhabited countries. When, however, their haunts are in 
the neighbourhood of native villages, they often commit great havoc in the corn-fields of the 
inhabitants, trampling down as much as they eat; and it was their fondness for sugar cane 
which brought about the destruction of the last herd of hippopotamuses surviving in Natal. 
The lower canine teeth or tusks of the hippopotamus grow to a great size, and in bulls 
may weigh from 4 lbs. to 7 lbs. each. They are curved in shape, and when extracted from 
the jaw form a complete half-circle, and have been known to measure upwards of 30 inches 
over the curve. In life, however, not more than a third of their length protrudes beyond 
the gums. 
During the daytime hippopotamuses are seldom met with out of the water. They lie and 
doze all day long in the deep pools of the rivers they frequent, with only their eyes, ears, 
and nostrils above’the surface, or else bask in the sun on the tail of a sandbank, looking like 
so many gigantic pigs with their bodies only partially submerged. Sometimes they will lie 
and sleep entirely out of water amongst reeds. I have seen them feeding in the reed-beds 
of the great swamps of the Chobi just at sundown, but as a rule they do not leave the water 
until after dark. At night 
they often wander far afield, 
especially in the rainy season, 
in search of suitable food; , 
and after having been fired 
at and frightened, I have, 
known a herd of hippopota- 
muses to travel at least five- 
and-twenty miles along the 
course of a river during the 
ensuing night, in order to 
reach a larger and deeper pool 
than the one in which they 
had been molested. 
Although the hippopota- 
mus is thoroughly at home 
A hippopotamus stays under water for about 2% minutes at a time, and then just shows part of in the hottest parts of Africa, 
its head above water while it draws a fresh breath and appears to thrive in the 
tepid waters of all the rivers 
which flow through the malarious coast regions of the tropical portions of that continent, 
it is also found at a considerable altitude above the sea, and in quite small streams where. 
the temperature of the water during the winter months cannot be many degrees above 
freezing-point. I have personally met with hippopotamuses in the Manyami River, not far from 
the present town of Salisbury, in Mashonaland. The country there has an altitude of about 
5,000 feet above sea-level; and the water was so cold on the last occasion on which I came 
across the animals in question — July, 1887 — that, if a basinful was left out during the night, 
ice quite an eighth of an inch in thickness would be formed over it before morning. There 
was, however, never any ice on the river itself. During the rainy season, when the grass 
and reeds are green and succulent, hippopotamuses become enormously fat, especially in the 
higher and colder portions of their range, and retain a good deal of their fat right through , 
the driest season of the year. Old bulls are usually very lean; but I have seen cows the 
greater part of whose carcasses, after the skin had been stripped off, was covered with a layer 
of fat from 1 inch to 2 inches in thickness. The meat of these animals is dark red in 
colour, and more like beef than pork. To my mind, that of a young animal is most 
excellent in flavour, and far preferable to that of a lean antelope. The fat, when prepared, is 
as good as the best lard, from which, indeed, it is hardly distinguishable. The skin of the 
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HIPPOPOTAMUSES BATHING 
