THE HIPPOPOTAMUS. 189 
can do to drive him from their fields is 
make a noise in the night and to keep up 
^fes at different spots. These animals, from 
ffieir voracity, are a scourge to a whole dis- 
^^’ict ; and in some places they are so hold 
^liat they will not quit the fields which they 
laying waste, till a great number of men 
^Oftie out with poles and loud cries to drive 
^^em away. 
From Captain Owen’s recently published 
^^rrative of his voyage undertaken for sur- 
''^ying certain parts of the coast of Africa, we 
^®arn that his companions had several encoun- 
with the hippopotamus. A boat was sent 
the river Mapoota on the east coast of 
^hat continent, where this animal abounds. 
one occasion her crew fired a volley of 
h'on grape-shot from their two-pounder, among 
or six hippopotami, at the distance of 
^orty yards ; yet not one was killed, although 
^heir hides and flesh w^ere completely furrowed. 
