78 
VOYAGE To SENEGAL 
grows grey, snd, as the animal gets old, resembles that of a 
mouse. When in the water^ this hair always shines : the head is 
large and stout, but it appears short or diminutive in proportion 
to the rest of the body, and it is quite flat. The neck is thick 
«ud shorty and bears no hair till the animal gets old. This part 
possesses great strength, as do also the loins. The ears, though 
large, are small with respect to the size of the head : they are 
pointed, and the animal can erect or backen them like the com- 
mon horse. It has a fine sense of hearing, and a penetrating 
sight. Its eyes are large and particularly projecting ; and when 
it is ever so little enraged, they become red, and glare in a ter- 
rible manner. The nose is thick and turned up, and the nostrils 
are wide. Besides the incisors and grinders, which are very large 
and rather hollow in the center, the animal has four very large 
teeth, which serve it for weapons of defence; two being on each 
side like those of the boar ; they are about seven or eight inches 
long, and nearly five inches in circumference at the root : those 
of tlie lower jaw are rather more bent than the others, and the 
substance of which they are composed, is whiter and infinitely 
harder than ivory. When the animal is enraged and gnashes its 
teeth, which emit sparks: this circumstance doubtless gave rise ta 
the opinion amongst the ancients that the sea-horse vomited fire. 
It is certain that these teeth when struck against a bit of steel, 
produce sparks, as readily as a flint. 
The hippopotamus has no horns, its feet and teeth being the on- 
ly weapons with which nature has provided it; its legs are thick, 
■fleshy, and of a tolerable size ; the foot is cleft like that of oxen ; 
but the pasterns or knees are too weak to support the weight of 
the body: nature, however, has provided against tins defect by 
supplying the fetlock with two little horny substances, which tend 
to support the animal while walking; it thus leaves upon the 
ground, at every step, the impression of the four horns, which 
must have made the ancients think that its claws were similar to 
those of the crocodile, as they have depicted it to us. The hip- 
popotamus walks tolerably quick when it is pressed, and if it find a 
level and rather hard soil ; but it can never overtake a horse, nor 
even a light-made man, as are all the Negroes who hunt it for 
amusement. 
The skin of the river-horse is uncommonly hard, particularly 
that which covers the neck, the back, the hind part of the thighs, 
and the rump, insomuch that balls only slip along it, and arrows 
recoil. It is, however, much thinner, and consequently more 
easy to perforate, under the belly and between the thighs ; in these 
parts, therefore, the hunters attempt to wound it. 
The river-horse is amphibious: it is frequently seen in the sea; 
but we know that it does not proceed far from the coast or fi esh 
