HIPPOPOTAMUS, OR RIVER HORSE. 
733 
and partly our being in absolute want of any other fresh provisions. 
We found the fat and flesh of this calf as slabby as o|se might have 
expected from its want of age, and consequently not nearly so good 
as that of the old sea-cows ; of w^hich I found the flesh tender, and 
the fat of a taste like marrow, or at least not so greasy and strong as 
other fat. It is for this reason likewise that the colonists look upon 
the flesh and fat of the sea-cow as the wholesomest meat that can be 
eaten ; the gelatinous parts in particular, when properly dressed, 
being accounted a great delicacy. The dried tongues of these 
animals are also considered, even at the Cape, as a rare and savoury 
dish. 
“On my return to Sweden, I had the honour to furnish his majesty’s 
table with a dried sea-cow’s tongue, two feet and eight inches long. 
With respect to form, the tongue of a full-grown hippopotamus is 
very blunt at the tip, and is in fact broadest at that part ; at the same 
time it is slanted off towards one side, and marked with lobes, as I 
was informed it is ; this circumstance may perhaps proceed from the 
friction it suffers against the teeth, towards the side on which the 
animal chiefly chews ; at least some traces of this oblique form were 
discoverable on the dried tongue I am speaking of. The hide of 
the adult hippopotamus bears a great resemblance to that of the 
rhinoceros, but is rather thicker. Whips likewise made of this hide 
are stronger, and, after being used some tisne, are more pliable, than 
those made of the hide of the rhinoceros usually are, though they are 
not so transparent as those latter are when new. 
“The food of the hippopotamus consists entirely of herbsand grass ; 
a circumstance of which w^e are informed by Father Lobo, and which 
may partly be inferred from what I have already said on the subject, 
as well as the figure of the stomach belonging to the fcetus of a hippo- 
potamus, given in Messrs, de Buffon and Daubenton’s elegant work. 
I therefore do not look upon it as very probable that these animals, 
agreeably to the assertion of M. de Buffon, p. 93, or of Darapier in 
his Voyage, should hunt after fish by way of preying upon them ; 
especially, as in some of the rivers of the southern part of Africa, 
where the sea-cows are seen daily and in great abundance, there is 
not a fish to be seen ; and in others, only a few bastard springers, as 
they are called, cyprimis gonorynchus, which are scarcely as big as 
a common herrin'g. It is said, a small species of carp is still more rarely 
to be met with here. It is true, that the sea-cows sometimes frequent 
the mouths of the rivers here, which are full of sea-fish, and even 
sometimes the sea itself ; we know, thereforcj, that these huge quadru- 
peds are, notwithstanding this, obliged to go from thence upon dry 
land in quest of food. Neither is it probable that they can drink the 
sea water j as an instance was related to me of the contrary, in 3, 
hippopotamus, which having been disturbed in the rivers, had taken 
refuge in the sea, and yet was obliged to go ashore every night, and 
drink fresh water from a well in the neighbourhood, till at last it 
was shot by some people that lay in vrait for it there. 
“ That the hippopotamus lives in salt water, I have seen evident 
proofs at the mouths both of Cromme and Camtour rivers, particii- 
iar'y in the latter, on my journey homeward ; where many of these 
