EFFICIENT PREPARATION IN AMMUNITION AND ARMS. 335 
sink, and to return to its former dimensions when it wishes to return 
to the surface. It mostly affects the stillest reaches of the river, as 
it is less exposed to the current, and not so liable to be swept down 
the stream while asleep. 
The young hippopotamus is not able to bear submersion so long 
as its parent, and is therefore carefully brought to the surface at 
short intervals for the purpose of breathing. During the first few 
months of the little animal’s life, it takes its stand on its mother’s 
neck, and is borne by her above or through the water as experience 
may dictate or necessity require. 
THE HIPPOPOTAMUS FIERCE FIGHTERS WHEN AROUSED. 
On shore the hippopotamus trots heavily, but with considerable 
rapidity, and when two of them meet on solid ground they frequently 
fight ferociously, rearing up on their hind feet, and biting one an¬ 
other with great fury, so that according to African travelers, it is 
rare to find a hippopotamus which has not some of its teeth broken, 
or the scars of wounds upon his body. When not irritated they 
appear to be quiet and inoffensive; but a very trifling irritation is 
sufficient to rouse their anger, when they attack the offender most 
furiously with their teeth. 
A hippopotamus which had been touched accidentally by a boat 
turned upon it and tore out several of the planks, so that it was 
with difficulty the crew got to shore. A hippopotamus has also been 
known to kill some cattle, which were tied up near his haunts, with¬ 
out the slightest provocation. 
Mr. Cuninghame, who was in Africa with Colonel Roosevelt, 
gives the following account of the habits of the hippopotamus: 
“ This animal abounds in the Limpopo, dividing the empire with its 
amphibious neighbor, the crocodile. Throughout the night the un¬ 
wieldy monsters might be heard snorting and blowing during their 
acquatic gambols, and we not unfrequently detected them in the act 
of sallying from their reed-grown coverts, to graze by the serene 
light of the moon; never, however, venturing to any distance from 
the river, the stronghold to which they betake themselves on the 
smallest alarm. 
