HAMLYN'S MENAGERIE MAGAZINE. 
"The prints of their feet in the mud are 
very different from those of the elephant, and 
natives readily distinguish between the two. 
The animals, when they caught sight of the 
travellers., plunged into the water, and, leav- 
ing only the summits of their heads and 
their trunks exposed, swam towards the oppo- 
site shore. 
"These details, coming from a trained 
observer, are sufficiently precise to leave no 
doubt concerning the existence of the animal, 
whatever may be its zoological affinities. 
(Dr.) E. Trouessart. 
"At present," says Mr. R. Lydekker in 
a letter to the 'Times,' "I do not feel dis- 
posed to offer any comment on this extremely 
circumstantial and interesting account." 
To the Editor of "La Nature." 
" Sir. — I wish to corroborate the descrip- 
tion of the above very mysterious animal 
given by M. Le Petit from Lake Leopold II. 
in the Paris Journal 'La Nature' of 14th 
Jan. last. In the year 1905 I was collecting 
gorillas, chimpanzees, antelopes, etc., in the 
Belgian and French Congo, and had the plea- 
sure of meeting M. Le Petit at Brazzaville. 
" He was then following the occupation 
of hippopotamus and elephant hunter in and 
about the region of Stanley Pool. I found 
him a very interesting personage, a great col- 
lector of skins, horns, etc., well acquainted 
with the vast number of strange animals in- 
habiting that region. Having spent some 
time with him, I descended the river and 
worked round the sea coast to Sette Cama, 
French Congo, South West Africa, where I 
found gorillas and chimpanzees in abundance. 
It was whilst there that I made the ac- 
vuaintance of a Panguin hunter. These, I 
might say, are the natives who inhabit the 
interior, some ten miles from the coast. He 
gave me a similar description of a water ani- 
mal which was found in the Fernan Faz dis- 
trict, in a lake which he stated had never 
been visited by white men. The animal's 
size was between a hippopotamus and an ele- 
phant. It lived mostly in the water, and 
could stop underneath or at the bottom some 
considerable time. It was dangerous to ap- 
proach them, for they could destroy a canoe 
easily by means of their jaws; tusks they had 
none. 
"They were hairy, with extremely thick 
hides. They did not frequent or consort with 
either the hippopotamus, elephant, or other 
animals. They were greatly respected by the 
natives, and never hunted, and! no white men 
had ever seen them. On my mentioning this 
to the agent with whom I was living, he 
stated that he firmly believed in their exis- 
tence, but had not mentioned the matter, for 
he felt sure he would be laughed at for giving 
the information. On my return to London I 
mentioned the existence of these animals to 
several eminent zoologists, but they entirely 
repudiated any such animal. 
" It therefore gives me much pleasure to 
know that M. Le Petit five years after sus- 
tains my original statement. — Yours, etc., 
John D. Hamlyn. 
St. George's Street, London Docks, E. 
In conclusion, I have no> hesitation is stating 
that there are stranger animals in West Africa 
than the "Water Elephant," all of which doubt- 
less will be discovered as time goes on. 
JOHN D. HAMLYN. 
SKUNK FARMS IN AMERICA. 
By Pierre Amedee-Pichot. 
(Translated from the Bulletin of the French Ac- 
climatization Society, December, 1915, by F. 
Finn. Continued from Page 3, No. 10, Feb- 
ruary.) 
In November and December each male is put 
to five to twelve females, and pairing takes place 
from February to the middle of March. On April 
1st, each female is lodged in a separate hutch or 
cage. The young are born in the first week in 
May. The young females have four to six young 
at a birth, but their fertility increases with age, 
and some have been known to have as many as 
sixteen. These are born blind and hairless, like 
ferrets, but from the pink and bluish hues of the 
skin one can already see how they will be marked. 
Their eyes open on the seventeenth day, and at 
the age of a month they begin to get about; then 
they get milk to drink. At six months they are 
full grown. 
The pestilential smell of the liquid secretion 
of the Skunk's anal glands have made it the sub- 
ject of various legends in America, where most 
disastrous effects are laid to its charge. Rather, 
let us see what Hudson, a naturalist who has ex- 
plored the Pampas and been intimate with all the 
wild animals there, says about it. According to 
this traveller, the smell of garlic is ambrosia to it. 
This pestilential stench has a more distressing 
effect upon the nervous system than sea-sickness, 
and clingis so, that clothing scented by it cannot 
be used for a long time. Besides, the fluid 
secreted by the Skunk has a corrosive action 
which mav cause loss of sight, at any rate tcm- 
