2 
WILD BEASTS AND THEIR WAYS 
CHAP. 
eight years ago I saw crocodiles in considerable 
numbers at Dendera upon the lower Nile, far to 
the north of the cataracts at Assouan. These 
creatures have disappeared, and the disturbance 
occasioned by steamers has not only exiled them 
from their old haunts upon the lower river, but 
they are become scarce where they were exceed- 
ingly plentiful twenty years ago, between the first 
and second cataracts to Wady Haifa. 
When we have been ourselves eye-witnesses 
of such a change within the short interval of a 
few years, it becomes easy to comprehend the 
disappearance of the hippopotamus during the 
last thousand or fifteen hundred years. This 
animal, in like manner with the crocodile, would 
not migrate suddenly to a distant point, but would 
gradually recede before advancing civilisation, 
and would disappear from a district by slow 
degrees that would hardly be appreciated at the 
time of its retreat. 
The hippopotamus is heavier than the black 
rhinoceros, but would be about equal in weight 
to the white variety; it may therefore be ranked 
as second in weight to the elephant. The flesh 
and hide are more dense than those of the 
elephant, which causes it to sink immediately 
when shot within deep water; if within 2 5 feet 
depth, the body will ascend and float when the 
gases shall have distended the carcase, which will 
take place in about two hours. 
The specific gravity would be , greater than 
