98 
HIPPOPOTAMUS. 
is so thick as to be almost impenetrable. The tail 
is about a foot long, taper, depressed, and naked ; 
and, notwithstanding it is an amphibious animal, 
the hoofs are unconnected by membranes. 
We learn from Mr. Pennant, that this animal is 
second in size only to the elephant ; that the length 
of the male has been found to be seventeen feet; 
the legs near three ; the head above three and a 
half ; his girth near nine ; that twelve oxen have 
been found necessary to draw one ashore, which had 
been shot in a river above the Cape ; and, that his 
hide is a load for a camel. 
Although the hippopotamus inhabits Africa, from 
the Niger to the Berg nver, many miles north of 
the Cape of Good Hope ; yet he is not at present 
to be met with in any of the African rivers which 
run into the Mediterranean, except the Nile ; and 
even there only in Upper Egypt, and in the fens 
and lakes of Ethiopia which that river passes 
through. However, they were formerly seen be- 
low the cataracts; for, in the year 1603, Frederico 
Zerenghi, a surgeon of Narni in Italy, printed at 
Naples the history of two hippopotami, which he 
had taken alive in a great ditch dug on purpose in 
the neighbourhood of the Nile, near Damietta. 
“ With a view,” says Zerenghi, “ of obtaining 
a hippopotamus, I stationed men upon the Nile, 
who, having seen two of these animals go out of the 
river, made a large ditch in the way through which 
they passed, and covered it with thin planks, earth. 
