the hippopotami:. 



cover the cavity with branches of trees and turf (a). When the Hippopotami 

 come out of the river, in the night, to graze, they often fall into thefe ihares, 

 and very frequently receive wounds which occalion their immediate death." 

 This account is confirmed by the Sate Colonel Gordon, commandant of the 

 Cape, who killed a great number of thefe animals. He adds, they are very 

 dexterous in covering thefe pits, and as the Hippopotamus will not readily 

 go, except where there are prints of the feet of its own kind, the natives 

 always keep a foot to mark the land which covers the pit. 



(a) The traveller feems to have forgot that the Hippopotamus is tixteen feet, in length, confequently a 

 pit often feet diameter is not large enough to contain him. 



