NATURAL HISTORY. 263 
93 lb., and one from an elephant killed at the station of 
Msuata, by one of the Zanzibaris, weighed 79 lb. Of 
course [ have heard of tusks of immense and fabulous 
weight, 180 lb. and 192 lb. being modestly cited as 
examples of these prodigies; but I require to see them 
weighed before believing such statements. The largest 
tusk I have ever seen in West Africa (at Old Calabar) 
weighed 140 lb., and looked a monster. Although the 
elephant is so abundant all along the Congo, from Stanley 
Pool towards the interior, yet the natives, as far as I have © 
yet ascended the river, never dreamt of attacking him, but 
received all their ivory from the Bangala of the equator, 
who are also reported by the Ba-yansi to get theirs from a 
yet more distant tribe; so that I should not be surprised 
to learn that the same central region that sends its ivory 
to the Congo also supplies the merchants of the Shari and 
the Nile. = 
The hippopotamus, as will have been gathered from the 
many previous references to its abundance, is one of the 
commonest, or at least one of the most noticeable, of the 
Congo mammalia. During the day-time this great am- 
phibian prefers to frequent the large submerged sand- 
banks or “shallows” so common in the river. Here he 
generally stands upright, with his head and backbone 
rising above the water, and with many of his companions 
inaline. They yawn constantly, and the huge jaws are 
lifted in this action high above the water, displaying a 
pinky chasm of palate and throat. The grunting noise 
they make, and their great sighs of contentment as they 
relapse into the tepid water after a momentary inspection 
of the advancing canoe, may be heard for a long distance 
across the stream. Hippopotami are distinctly reddish ir 
colour as seen in the water. They generally go in herds 
of nine and ten together, apparently consisting of one 
mature bull with four or five cows and their respective 
calves. The act of coition is said by the natives to take 
place invariably at night-time, as with pigs. Certainly 
the activity of the hippopotamus is very much greater 
after the sun has set, for it is then that he leaves the 
