270 
AFRICA AND ITS EXPLORATION. 
hippopotami, which gave him some good sport, which 
he thus describes :— 
One of the most remarkable animals of Africa is 
certainly the hippopotamus, and I will therefore add a 
few words on the mode of hunting this animal mon¬ 
strosity. 
In the early days of the Cape Colony there were 
hippopotami in nearly all the rivers, lakes, swamps, and 
ponds of Natal, but they were soon frightened away by 
the constant firing, and now, except near the mouth of 
the Tugela River, they are seldom met with. 
The colonists of Natal call the hippopotamus the 
sea-cow, and the Zulu name for it is Impovu. Its flesh, 
which is streaked with white fat, is considered a great 
delicacy. It is extremely tender, and has a pleasant 
taste, something between that of beef and pork. 
In spite of its clumsy, massive form, it is wonderfully 
active in the water, and is extremely dainty about its 
food. At night it leaves the swamps and lakes to 
wander for miles over hill and mountain in search of 
its favourite diet, a very tender grass, called sea-cow 
grass by Dun. The ground where one of these huge 
beasts has been feeding always looks as if it had been 
mown with a machine. It is as smooth as a carpet, 
and it is difficult to understand how such a monstrous 
mouth can cut so cleanly. All about the large lakes in 
Zululand pits had been dug by the natives, for a visit 
from a hippopotamus in a maize or durra plantation is 
very bad for the harvest. Where these destructive 
creatures are numerous, watch is kept all night in huts 
constructed for the purpose, and efforts are made to 
frighten them away by means of noise and fire. 
In 1866 I became acquainted with Dun, and accom¬ 
panied him on one of his great hunting expeditions, 
lie is now in the service of the Government, and has 
almost given up hunting, and I am living peacefully 
on the banks of the Weser; but I shall never forget 
the scenes we witnessed together on Lakes Musingasi 
and Inchlabani. In 1870, Dun and his Kaffirs brought 
down no less than one hundred and four hippopotami. 
