THE HIPPOPOTAMUS, OR RIVER-HORSE. 
(Hippopotamus amphibus.) 
THIS animal lives as well on land as in water, and yields 
in size to none but the elephant : he weighs sometimes be- 
tween fifteen and sixteen hundred pounds. His skin is 
very sleek, and covered with short and soft hair, of a 
mouse colour. The head is tiattish on the top, about four 
feet long and nine in circumference ; the lips are large, 
the jaws open about two feet wide, and the cutting-teeth, 
of which it has four in each jaw, are about a foot long ; he 
has broad ears, and large eyes, a thick neck, and a short 
tail, tapering like that of a hog. He grazes and eats the 
leaves and ycung branches of trees on shore, but retires to 
the water if pursued, and will sink down to the bottom, as 
he can remain five or six minutes at a time under water. 
