XII 
THE HIPPOPOTAMUS 
23 
potamus is a fierce and dangerous animal when 
in the water, and that it will frequently attack 
boats, especially at night, or any other object that 
may attract its senseless fury, but when on land 
it very rarely ventures to provoke a contest; on 
the contrary, it prefers retreat, and betakes itself 
precipitately to the rivers bed, where it feels secure 
from molestation. 
The ivory having decreased in value, owing 
to the American invention of enamel for artificial 
teeth, and the demand for its hide having been 
reduced by the British interference in Egypt, 
where the courbatch (hippopotamus whip) has 
been abolished, the hippopotamus will remain the 
undisturbed inhabitant of the great White Nile, 
monarch of the river ; upon which fifteen English 
steamers were plying when the Soudan was 
abandoned by the despotic order of Great Britain, 
and handed back to savagedom and wild beasts. 
