37a TRAVELS IN 
The fkln, however, of thefe animals can- 
not be better employed. It has a great re- 
femblance, if we except its thicknefs, to that 
of the hog ; and the hippopotamus approaches 
very near to that animal. To perfons not 
previoufly informed, their fat would appear to 
be entirely the fame ; and, if that of the hip- 
popotamus could be falted with all the preciui- 
tions necelTary, it might be preferred with 
more juftice, as in all the colonies it is rec- 
koned very wholefome. The people of the 
Cape are perfuaded that, taken in a potion, it 
is fufHcient to cure radically thofe who are af- 
flided with diforders of the breaft. That which 
I preferved in bottles made of fkins had the 
ufual confiftency of olive oil, during the great 
colds of winter. 
The tuiks of the hippopotamus are endow^ed 
with a quality which renders them preferable 
to ivory. The latter, in time, becomes yel- 
low ; but, in w^hatever manner the former may 
be prepared, they retain their whitenefs in all 
its purity. It is not therefore aftonifliing that 
the Europeans, and, above all, the French, 
confider them as a great objeS: of traffic. By 
the affiftance of art they fupply the deficiencies 
of 
