Hippopotamus.] 



MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE. 



S7 



368. — The Mastodox. 



Coexistent perhaps with the mammoth, a race of 

 huge animals, now utterly extinct, once tenanted 

 our globe : their remains, which are met with in the 

 superficial strata, occur in some localities in great 

 abundance ; and, from the differences presented by 

 the teeth and other parts, several species have been 

 identified. To these animals Cuvier gave the title 

 of Mastodon, in allusion to the principal character 

 of the molars, which, instead of being formed, as in 

 the elephant, of transversa lamina;, have the crown 

 of simple structure, but. exhibiting ranges of bold 

 conical elevations, divided from each other by deep 

 furrows (see Fig. 3G9). As the points of these eleva- 

 tions become worn down by use, the crown presents 

 a series of lozenge-shaped lines of thick enamel 

 (Fig. 370), but when these are quite obliterated the 

 surface becomes uniform and concave. 



Of the molars thus characterised there were two 

 above and below on each side ; but before these mo- 

 lars it would appear that in young individuals others 

 had been situated, and had fallen in succession, as 

 Cuvier satisfactorily ascertained from the examina- 

 tion of various specimens. With regard to the mode 

 of succession in the grinders of the mastodon, it takes 

 place, says Cuvier, by a movement from behind 

 forwards. When the "back tooth is in the act of 

 piercing the gum, that anterior to it is worn and 

 ready to fall, and they thus replace themselves one 

 after the other. It does not appear that it is 

 possible for more than two at a time on each side 

 to be in full operation, and ultimately, as in the 

 elephant, there is only one. That the mastodon 

 had tusks like the elephant is proved by the large 

 alveoli for their reception. As no perfect skull 

 of the mastodon is known, it is impossible to define 

 its contour: it must, however, have had a general 

 resemblance to that of the elephant, inasmuch as 

 the tables of the frontal bone are separated in a 

 similar manner by extensive cells. 



The neck is short, and the skeleton generally 

 (Fig. 368) approximates to that of the elephant. 

 The mastodon must have possessed a proboscis, as 

 is evident from a consideration of the structure of 

 the skull and skeleton, — and indeed it would ap- 

 pear that this proboscis has not. in every instance 

 been completely decomposed. The relics of the 

 Mastodon giganteus, or " animal of the Ohio," are 

 found in North America, especially in saline mo- 

 rasses, and to this circumstance Barton thinks is 

 to be attributed the occurrence of soft parts still 

 capable of being made out. In 1762 (as he states) 

 out of five skeletons which were seen by the natives, 

 one skull still possessed what they called a " long 

 nose " with the mouth under it. Kalm, speaking of 

 a huge skeleton which, in accordance with the 

 ideas of his time, he believed to be that of an 

 elephant, and which was discovered by the savages 

 in the country of the Illinois, says that " the form 

 of the trunk (bee) was still apparent, though half 

 decomposed." Of the several species of this extinct 

 genus the Great Mastodon, or animal of the Ohio, 

 is the most remarkable. Its relics appear to be 

 confined to the American continent : they are dis- 

 tributed very generally, and are accumulated in 

 some places in considerable abundance, but no- 

 where so much so as in that saline morass popularly 

 termed the Big-bone Lick. They are found buried 

 in the mud, and along the borders of the morass, 

 at the depth of four feet and upwards, together with 

 the bones of buffaloes, stags, &e. These relics have 

 no appearance of having been rolled, and, in some 

 places, as for example along the Great Osage River, 

 they are found in a vertical position, as if the ani- 

 mals had sunk down into the mud, which had closed 

 over them. The ferruginous matter with which the 

 bones are impregnated, says Cuvier, is the main 

 proof of their long repose in the earth. 



The traditions which were rife among the Red 

 Men concerning this gigantic animal and its de- 

 struction must not be passed over in silence. M. 

 Fabri, a French officer, informed Buffon that the 

 savages regarded these bones scattered in various 

 parts of Canada and Louisiana as belonging to an 

 animal which they named the Pere aux Baeufs. 

 The Shawnee Indians believed that with these 

 enormous animals there existed men of propor- 

 tionate development, and that the Great Being 

 destroyed both with thunderbolts. Those of Vir- 

 ginia state that as a troop of these terrible quad- 

 rupeds were destroying the deer, the bisons, and 

 the other animals created for the use of the Indians, 

 the Great Man slew them all with his thunder' 

 except the Big Bull, who, nothing daunted, pre- 

 sented his enormous forehead to the bolts, and shook 

 them off as they fell, till, being at last wounded in 

 the side, he fled towards the great lakes, where he 

 is to this day. 



Besides the Mastodon criganteus, the following 

 species are distinguished : M. An»-ustidens (Europe^ 

 America ?), M. andium (Andes), M. Humboldtii 

 (Conception— Chili), M. minutus, M.t apiroules, 



M. Turicensis, M. Avernensis (Epplesheim, Puy-de 

 Dome), M. elephantoides (Irawaddi, Sewalik Moun- 

 tains), M. latidens (Irawaddi, Sewalik Mountains), 

 and M. longirostris, Kaup. Professor Owen has 

 referred the teeth from the Norfolk crag to the last- 

 named species. 



371, 372, 373.— The Hippopotamus. 



M. Desmoulins, from an examination of the skulls 

 and skeletons of Hippopotami from Senegal and 

 from South Africa, considers that there are two 

 distinct, species, which he names respectively H. 

 Senegalensis and H. Capensis. Very probably M. 

 Desmoulins is correct, but as the habits of both spe- 

 cies are precisely the same, and as the distinctive 

 characters are founded on osteologieal minutiae only, 

 we shall not treat them as different, more especially 

 as the point is rather assumed than absolutely 

 proved. 



The hippopotamus is a native exclusively of 

 Africa, where, though much more limited than for- 

 merly in the range of its habitat, it tenants the 

 banks and beds of the larger rivers, and of the in- 

 land lakes from the Gariep to the upper Nile and 

 its tributary branches. It is, however, not restricted 

 to these, for it is marine as well as fluviatile ; and 

 Dr. Smith thinks it difficult to decide whether it 

 gives preference to the river or the sea for its abode 

 during the day. When the opportunity of choosing 

 the sea or the river existed, he found that some se- 

 lected the one, and some the other. 



Scarcely, if at all, inferior to the elephant in bulk, 

 but much lower in stature from the shortness of the 

 limbs, this massive animal presents us with the " ne 

 plus ultra" of uncouth clumsiness and heavy so- 

 lidity. Its body, like an enormous barrel sup- 

 ported on four thick pillars, almost, touches the 

 ground; the head is ponderous; the muzzle is 

 swollen : and the great thick lips, studded with wire- 

 like bristles, entirely conceal the projecting incisors 

 of the lower jaw, and the huge curved tusks or ca- 

 nines ; the mouth is wide ; the nostrils open on the 

 top of the swollen muzzle; and the eyes, which are 

 very small, are situated high on the head ; hence, 

 when in the water, the animal by raising merely a 

 small upper section of the head above the surface 

 can both look around and breathe, the body re- 

 maining submerged. The ears are small and 

 pointed: the tail is short, and furnished with a few 

 wiry bristles. The toes, four on each foot, are 

 tipped with small hoofs. The hide is naked, coarse, 

 and of great thickness, being two inches deep or 

 more on the back and sides. It is made into shields, 

 whips, walking-sticks, &c. Between the skin and 

 the flesh is a layer of fat, which is salted and eaten 

 as a delicacy by the Dutch colonists of Southern 

 Africa ; indeed, the epicures of Cape-Town, as Dr. 

 Smith says, do not disdain to use their influence 

 with the country farmers to obtain a preference in 

 the matter of Sea-coio's speck, as this fat is termed 

 when salted and dried. The flesh also is excellent 

 and in much request. The general colour of the 

 hippopotamus is dusky brownish-red, passing on 

 the sides and limbs into a light purple red or brown; 

 the under parts, the lips, and the eyelids are light 

 wood-brown, with a tinge of flesh-colour; the 

 hinder quarters and the under surface are freckled 

 with spots of dusky brown ; the hairs of the tail and 

 ears are black, those on the muzzle yellowish-brown. 

 The male far exceeds the female in size. The 

 hippopotamus is gregarious in its habits, sagacious, 

 wary, and cautious. It has been long driven away 

 from the rivers within the limits of the Cape colony; 

 but in remoter districts, where the sound of the 

 musket is seldom heard, it abounds in every large 

 river, and is comparatively fearless of man. " To 

 convey," says Dr. Smith, " some idea of the numbers 

 in which they were found in several of the rivers 

 towards the tropic of Capricorn, it may suffice to 

 state that in the course of an hour and a half a 

 few members of the expedition party killed seven 

 within gun-shot of their encampment. Several 

 other individuals were in the same pool, and might 

 also have been killed, had it been desirable. One 

 of the survivors was observed to make his escape 

 to an adjoining pool, and in accomplishing that he 

 walked with considerable rapidity along 1he bottom 

 of the river, and with his back covered with about 

 a foot of water." 



The hippopotami, according to Dr. Smith, feed 

 chiefly on grass, resorting to situations near the 

 banks of rivers which supply that food. " In dis- 

 tricts fully inhabited by man," says Dr. Smith, " they 

 generally pass the day in the water, and seek their 

 nourishment during the night; but in localities 

 differently circumstanced they often pass a portion 

 of the day as well as the night upon dry land. In 

 countries in which the night-time constitutes the 

 only safe period for their leaving the water, they 

 are generally to be seen effecting their escape from 

 it immediately before dark, or are to be heard doing 

 so soon after the day has closed, and according to 

 the state of the surrounding country ; they then 



either directly commence feeding, or begin a journey 

 towards localities where food may exist. When 

 previous to nightfall they may have been in pools 

 or rivers, they are generally at once enabled to 

 commence feeding on reaching the dry land ; but 

 when they may have passed the day in the sea, they 

 require commonly to proceed some distance after 

 leaving it, before they find the grass which appears 

 congenial to their palate. It is not every descrip- 

 tion of grass that hippopotami seem to relish : they 

 often pass over, in search of food, luxuriant green 

 swards, which would strongly attract many other 

 animals which feed upon grass. Besides having a 

 peculiar relish for the grasses of certain situations, 

 they appear to have a predilection for districts sup- 

 porting brushwood ; and, owing to the latter pecu- 

 liarity, they are often to be found wandering in 

 localities on which but little grass exists, when they 

 might have it. in the neighbourhood in great abund- 

 ance, but without the accompaniment of wood." 



We learn from Mr. Salt, that in the district of 

 Abyssinia watered by the Tacazze, a tributary to 

 the Nile, hippopotami are very numerous. The 

 Abyssinians term the animal Gomari. As Mr. Salt 

 travelled along the line of the river, he found it 

 interrupted by frequent overfalls and shallow fords. 

 Between these shallows are holes or pits of vast 

 depth, resembling the lochs and tarns in the moun- 

 tain districts of Scotland and England. It is to these 

 depths that the hippopotami delight to resort ; and 

 here Mr. Salt and his companions observed their 

 actions, which he compares to the rolling of a gram- 

 pus in the sea. 



" It appears," observes the same traveller, ''from 

 what we have witnessed, that the hippopotamus 

 cannot remain more than five or six minutes at a 

 time under water, being obliged to come up to the 

 surface at some such interval for the purpose of 

 respiration." 



It has generally been asserted that this huge, 

 powerful, and, it. should seem, inoffensive animal 

 has no enemy in the brute creation audacious enough 

 to contend with it. Some travellers, however, have 

 attributed this boldness to the crocodile, describing 

 combats between them, which in truth never take 

 place, no enmity subsisting between the two animals. 

 While Mr. Salt and his party were engaged shoot- 

 ing at the hippopotami, they frequently observed 

 several crocodiles of an enormous size rise together 

 to the surface of the same stream, apparently re- 

 gardless of and disregarded by their still more 

 enormous neighbours. — Captain Tuekey, m his 

 expedition to explore the Zaire or Congo, observed 

 immense numbers of hippopotami and alligators in 

 the same water — an association inconsistent with 

 hostility. 



Burckhardt (see his ' Travels in Nubia') informs us 

 that lower down the Nile, in Dongola, where there 

 are neither elephants nor rhinoceroses, the hippo- 

 potamus is very common. The Arabic name for it is 

 Barnik. It is a dreadful scourge to the inhabitants, 

 who lack the means of destroying it. Occasionally, 

 but rarely, it is seen much farther north, even below 

 the cataract of the Nile at Assouan. 



The hippopotamus abounds in the Niger, where it 

 was seen by Richard and John Lander. Clapperton 

 observed them in the lake Muggaby, Bornou, and 

 in the great lake Tchad and its tributary rivers. 



Quiet and inoffensive, it is only when attacked 

 that the hippopotamus becomes furious, and if hard 

 pressed on land, he rushes open-mouthed with the 

 utmost desperation on his aggressor. If the party 

 attacking the animal in his watery domicile be in 

 a boat, their danger is extreme. Captain Owen 

 (' Narrative of Voyages to explore the shores of 

 Africa, under Captain W. F. W. Owen') had many 

 encounters with these animals. While examining 

 a branch of the Temby river, in Delagoa Bay, a 

 violent shock was suddenly felt from underneath 

 the boat, and " in another moment a monstrous hip- 

 popotamus reared itself up from the water, and in a 

 most ferocious and menacing attitude rushed open- 

 mouthed at the boat, with one grasp of its tremen- 

 dous jaws seized and tore seven planks from her 

 side ; the creature disappeared for a few seconds, 

 and then rose again, apparently intending to re- 

 peat the attack, but was fortunately deterred by the 

 contents of a musket discharged in its face. The 

 boat rapidly filled, but as she was not more than an 

 oar's length from the shore, they (the crew) suc- 

 seeded in reaching it before she sank. The keel, 

 in all probability, had touched the back of the animal, 

 which, irritating him, occasioned this furious attack ; 

 and, had he got his upper jaw above the gunwale' 

 the whole broadside must have been torn out. The 

 force of the shock from beneath, previously to the 

 attack, was so violent, that her stern was almost 

 lifted out of the water, and Mr. Tambs, the mid- 

 shipman steerine;, was thrown overboard, but for- 

 tunately rescued before the irritated animal could 

 seize him. 



Fig. 374 represents the skeleton of the hippo- 

 potamus, which is a ponderous frame-work in unison 



