HIPPOPOTAMUS AMPHIBIUS. 
endeavoured to intercept immediately became the assailant, on discovering the object of the 
party, and with open mouth rushed towards the man nearest to her ; the display of her enormous 
mouth, armed with formidable teeth, caused the most advanced of the hunters to retreat, and 
those in the rear to pause. The flight of the hunters seemed to encourage the animal in pursuit, 
and though the direction they took led her, in pursuing them, to retire from the sea, which she 
had intended to enter, yet she persevered in giving chase, until one of the party who, from his 
situation, had not had occasion to fly, fired a bullet into her mouth. Immediately after the wound 
was inflicted, she, for an instant, stood still, and then retreated with precipitation to the sea, in 
which she was afterwards shot, having, contrary to the usual custom of her kind, manifested a 
disinclination to retire into deep water, a disinclination, no doubt arising from sensations expe- 
rienced from the wound she had received. 
The sagacity of the Hippopotamus, though it is no doubt inferior to that of the Elephant, is 
nevertheless very considerable. The habits of the animal are opposed to our becoming inti- 
mately acquainted with it — yet, from what has been noticed of its adroitness in guarding against 
assailants, in avoiding pits dug purposely to entrap it, in conducting its young both in and out 
of the water, and in migrating from localities which it may have discovered are not to be longer 
held without serious danger, to others not exposed to such inconveniences, — even though to reach 
those it may require to make long journeys, are all evidences that it is far from the stupid animal it 
hasbeenfrequently described. Its memory may be considered tenacious, certainly superior to that 
of the Rhinoceros, and possibly equal to that of the Elephant. W hen once a Hippopotamus has 
been assailed in its watery dwelling, and injured from incautiously exposing itself, it will rarely be 
guilty of the same indiscretion a second time ; and though its haunts may not again be appioached 
by hunters till after a long period has elapsed, it will survey such approaches, and perform the 
movements necessary for its respiration with a degree of caution, which clearly shows, that 
it has not forgotten the misfortunes to which an opposite course had exposed it. 
The European colonist, not less than the native of South Africa, hunts the Hippopotamus with 
great determination and perseverance ; the former trusts entirely to fire-arms for its destruction , 
the latter again trusts principally to stratagem, as with his weapons alone he is unable 
to kill it under common circumstances. The high estimation in which the fatty material 
that lies between the skin and the muscular parts of the Hippopotamus, and which is known 
in the Cape colony by the name of “ Speck,” is held, is perhaps the principal incitement 
which urges the white man’s perseverance, while that, as well as the parts beneath it, are 
equally objects of desire with the Native. To acquire the incisors and canine teeth, which 
are valuable as articles of trade, has also long rendered its capture an object desirable to 
hunters. The skin of the animal is likewise an article of profit, as, when cut into stripes and 
shaved into tapering cylinders of some feet in length, a ready market is found for them in 
the colony, where, under the name of “ Samiucks,” they are employed as substitutes for 
riding-whips. 
