734 
HIPPOPOTAMUS^ OR RIVER HORSE. 
aaimals blowed themselves in broad daylight, and thrust their heads 
up above the water ; and one of them, in particular, which had been 
wounded by an ill-directed shot on the nose, neighed from anger and 
resentment. 
“ In Krakikamma I saw on the beach manifest traces of a hippopo- 
tamus which had come out of the sea, but had retired thither again 
directly. That very attentive navigator, Captain Burtz, informed me 
that he had frequently seen, on the eastern coast of Africa, sea-horses, 
meaning probably the hippopotamus, raise their heads above the 
surface of the water, in order to blow themselves, and neigh. I have 
been induced to be rather circumstantial on this subject, as M. Adam- 
son had taken it into his head, in his Voyage au (Senegal, to limit 
the abode of the hippopotamus to fresh-water rivers only, in Africa; 
and M. de Buffon has taken upon him to support this opinion, and to 
render Holbe’s testimony to the contrary liable to suspicion. 
“The method of catching the hippopotamus consists, besides 
shooting it, in making pits for it in those parts which the animal 
passes in his way to and from the river; but this method is peculiar 
to the Hottentots, and is only practised by them in the rainy season, 
as the ground in summer is too hard for that purpose. It is said 
that they have never succeeded in killing this huge aquatic animal 
wdth poisoned darts, though this way of killing game is practised 
with advantage by the Hottentots, for the destruction both of the 
elephant and rhinoceros. The colonists likewise were not entirely 
unacquainted with the method used by M. Hasselquist, as being com- 
mon in Egypt, viz. to strew on the ground as many pease and beans 
as the animal can possibly eat, by which means it bursts its belly, 
and dies. But as this method is very expensive, and they can gene- 
rally have this animal for a single charge of powder, and a tin ball 
shot in a proper direction, they chiehy, and almost solely, have 
recourse to this cheaper expedient. 
“The hippopotamus is not so quick in its pace on land, as the gene- 
rality of the larger quadrupeds, though it is not so slow and heavy 
as M. de Buffon describes it to be, for both the colonists and Hotten- 
tots look upon it as dangerous to meet a hippopotamus out of the 
water ; especially as, according to report, they had a recent instance 
of one of these animals having for several hours pursued a Hottentot, 
who found it very difTicult to make his escape. The people of the 
country did not entertain that opinion of the medicinal virtues of the 
hippopotamus, which they did of certain parts of the elephant and 
rhinoceros, except one colonist, w'ho imagined he had found the 
os pelrosum of this animal, reduced to powder, and taken in the 
quantity that would lie on the point of a knife, excellent for convul- 
sions in children. That the flesh is reckoned very wholesome food, I 
have already mentioned. 
“ Having exceeded the limits 1 prescribed to myself, I do not intend 
to dwell here on the anatomy of the hippopotamus we caught ; par- 
ticularly as the internal conformation of the calves is somewhat 
different from that of the adult animal. I shall therefore only briefly 
mention the following particulars : — the stomachs w'ere four in 
number, and consequently one more than in the fcetus examined by 
