_THE PIG AND HIPPOPOTAMUS._
----
THE PIG TRIBE.
BY H. A. BRYDEN.
Many species and varieties of swine are found in different parts of the
world, most of them exhibiting strong traces of a general family
resemblance, although widely sundered as to habitats and often markedly
differing in outward appearance. All are omnivorous; all have the stomach
simpler in type than in the Ruminants; and all have front or incisor teeth
in the upper jaw. The two great families of swine proper are the Pigs and
Peccaries.
[Illustration: _Photo by W. Reid_] [_Wishaw, N.B._
A DOMESTICATED SOW AND HER PROGENY.
The absence of stripes and spots on the young is a feature in which they
differ from those of nearly all wild swine.]
There has been much discussion among scientists as to the early origin of
the various breeds of domestic swine found in different parts of the world.
There can be little doubt that, although selective breeding has produced
extraordinary differences in outward appearance, even among the domestic
pigs of our own islands, the origin of the numerous tame races is to be
sought in the ancestry of the wild breeds of the countries in which they
are found. Darwin has some very apposite remarks on the differences to be
observed in domesticated swine. "The peculiar form of the skull and body in
the most highly cultivated races is," he observes, "not characteristic of
any one race, but is common to all when improved up to the same standard.
Thus the large-bodied, long-eared English breed, with a convex back, and
the small-bodied, short-eared Chinese breeds, with a concave back, when
bred to the same state of perfection, nearly resemble each other in the
form of the head and body. This result, it appears, is partly due to
similar causes of change acting on the several races, and partly to man
breeding the pig for one sole purpose--namely, for the greatest amount of
flesh and fat; so that selection has always tended towards one and the same
end. With most domestic animals the result of selection has been divergence
of character; here it has been convergence."
[Illustration: _Photo by Ottomar Anschütz_] [_Berlin._
WILD BOAR.
In its long, bristly hair and powerful lower tusks, the wild boar is a very
different animal from its domesticated descendants.]
THE TRUE PIGS.
True pigs are found only in the Old World, and even there in very widely
different forms. Typical of these quadrupeds is the well-known WILD BOAR,
found abundantly in many parts of Europe, North Africa, Asia Minor, and
Central Asia. In the British Islands the wild boar must once have been
extraordinarily plentiful, especially in Ireland, where its tame
descendants still so greatly flourish. In the days of the Plantagenets wild
swine fed and sheltered in the woodlands close to London. James I. hunted
them near Windsor in 1617, and even down to the year 1683 these animals
still had their haunts in the more secluded parts of England. Although now
extinct in these Islands, the wild boar is to be found plentifully at the
present day in France, Germany, Austria, Russia, and Spain, Greece,
Albania, and other countries of the Mediterranean. In most parts of Europe
the wild boar is shot during forest drives, but in the Caucasus and round
the Black Sea the hardy peasants lie in wait for these animals by the
fruit-trees on autumn nights or waylay them going to the water and shoot
them single-handed. Many an old Cossack, writes Mr. Clive Phillipps-Wolley,
bears the scars of some desperate encounter with these formidable foes. In
Spain, where in the old days the boar was pursued by cavaliers with spear
and pike, it is still, in the forests of Estremadura, followed with horse
and hound, usually, says Mr. Abel Chapman, "during the stillness of a
moonlight night, when the acorns are falling from the oaks in the
magnificent Estremenian woods."
[Illustration: _Photo by J. Turner-Turner, Esq._
DIVING-PIGS.
Half-wild pigs, found in Florida, where they live on refuse fish. (See next
page)]
In India the wild boar of Europe and North Africa is replaced by a closely
allied species (distinguished by a crest of long black bristles upon the
neck and back), which furnishes some of the finest and most exciting sport
in the world to mounted hunters armed with a sharp spear. There is not a
pluckier or more fearless beast living than the boar; and as he carries
long and extremely sharp tusks, and never scruples to use them, he is an
exceedingly dangerous opponent when wounded and enraged. Severe and even
fatal accidents have happened in the pursuit of this determined beast of
chase. When at bay, the boar is absolutely reckless of life; and although
pierced and mortally wounded by the spear, will yet force himself up the
shaft, and with his dying effort inflict gaping wounds on the horse bearing
his attacker. Indian shikaris, to illustrate the courage of the wild boar,
say that he has the hardihood to drink at a river between two tigers; and
Colonel R. Heber Percy mentions, in the Badminton volumes on "Big Game
Shooting," that "several cases are on record in which an old boar has
beaten off a tiger, and some in which the latter has been killed by a boar.
The boar's extraordinary activity and sharp tusks make him no mean
adversary, and his short neck makes it difficult for a tiger to seize it
and give it that fatal wrench with which he likes to polish off his
victims." A wild boar will stand as much as 3 feet at the shoulder--some
sportsmen affirm considerably more--and weigh more than 300 lbs. The finest
boar's tusk known is one mentioned in Rowland Ward's "Records of Big Game."
This measures 11½ inches over the curve. It came from the Caucasus, and is
in the possession of Colonel Veernhof.
It is worthy of note that, while the full-grown individuals of the various
species of wild swine are uniformly coloured, their young are
longitudinally striped and spotted. In India, besides the common boar, a
tiny wild swine, known as the PYGMY HOG, is found in the Bhutan Terai and
the forests of Nepal and Sikhim. This pig, which is little bigger than a
fox-terrier, runs in considerable troops, or sounders, and is said to
attack intruders into its domain much in the same fearless way in which the
peccary of America defends its sanctuaries. The height of this diminutive
species is given as from 8 to 10 inches--the weight at 10 lbs.
Wild swine are nocturnal in their habits, frequenting moist and marshy
country, loving the shade of forests, and making their lairs in tall grass,
reed-beds, and similar covert. They go far afield for their food-supplies,
and do a great deal of damage to crops in cultivated districts. The
European wild sow produces from six to ten young, and at least two litters
are usually brought forth in the year.
It is remarkable how quickly pigs, as well as other domesticated animals,
revert to a semi-feral state of existence, and develop habits suited to a
fresh environment. Mr. J. Turner-Turner sends us the following interesting
note in connection with this trait: "DIVING-PIGS.--These pigs live in an
almost wild condition on certain of the islands off Florida, and subsist
chiefly upon the refuse fish cast away by the netsmen. To obtain this, the
pigs dive under water, walking on the land at a depth of 5 feet below the
surface."
Among other Asiatic wild swine are to be mentioned the COLLARED PIG, found
in Java, Sumatra, and Borneo; the WHITE-WHISKERED JAPANESE PIG; the PAPUAN
and FORMOSAN PIGS; the WARTY PIG of Java and Borneo; the CERAM PIG; the
CELEBES PIG; and the BEARDED PIG of Borneo, a species distinguished by a
quantity of long hair carried upon the cheeks. In the Andaman Islands a
small, shaggy wild pig, standing about 20 inches at the shoulder, is found
in the forests. Although distinguished from the well-known wild boar of
India by certain peculiarities, there is a strong family resemblance to
that well-known species in most of these various Asiatic species and races.
Among the many kinds of domesticated swine found in Asia, perhaps the
strangest and most curious is the JAPANESE MASKED PIG. This animal is
described by Darwin as having "an extraordinary appearance, from its short
head, broad forehead and nose, great fleshy ears, and deeply furrowed skin.
Not only is the face furrowed, but thick folds of skin, which are harder
than the other parts, almost like the plates on the Indian rhinoceros, hang
about the shoulders and rump. It is coloured black, with white feet, and
breeds true. That it has long been domesticated there can be little doubt;
and this might have been inferred even from the circumstance that its young
are not longitudinally striped."
[Illustration: _Photo by Scholastic Photo. Co., Parson's Green._
JAVAN WILD PIG.
One of several nearly allied species inhabiting the Malay Islands.]
[Illustration: _Photo by Scholastic Photo. Co_.] [_Parson's Green_.
MALE AND FEMALE BABIRUSA.
The chief characteristic of this pig is the peculiar and enormous
development of the tusks in the male, the upper pair of which grow through
the lips and curve backwards.]
In Africa, besides the European wild boar, which there extends its range to
Algeria and Morocco, a little-known wild pig is the SENAAR BOAR, found in
Senaar, Kordofan, and the Soudan region. In the late Dr. Gray's "Catalogue
of Carnivora" this wild pig is described as having the fur dense and
bristly, and being in colour dull olive-black, varied with yellow. Possibly
this little known swine may prove to be merely a sub-species of the common
wild boar of Europe and North Africa. Now that the Soudan regions have once
more been opened up to Europeans, we may expect shortly to hear more of
this wild swine, as well as of other rare and interesting animals.
Still dealing with the true pigs, we come now to the Bush-pigs of Africa
and Madagascar. These differ somewhat from the typical wild boars of Europe
and India in the structure of the teeth, the long pencilled ear-tufts, the
elongated snout, and other characteristics. The tusks are considerably
smaller, and seldom exceed 6 or 7 inches in length. The RED RIVER-HOG, or
WEST AFRICAN BUSH-PIG, is decidedly the most striking of this group.
Smaller than the bush-pig of South Africa, and seldom exceeding 2 feet in
height at the shoulder, the colour of this animal is a brilliant reddish
brown, with tints of yellow. Noticeable streaks of white are found round
the eyes and on the cheeks. The ear-tufts, forehead, and limbs are
blackish; more white markings are seen at the tips of the ear-tufts, along
the thick mane, and round the margins of the ears. The under-parts are
whitish grey in colour. This very handsome pig runs in considerable herds,
and is found chiefly in forest and jungle near the banks of the various
rivers in West Africa. Its range extends from Angola to Senegambia, and
eastwards into the continent as far as Monbuttu.
[Illustration: _Photo by Miss E. J. Beck_.
WART-HOG.
Shows the great size of the head in proportion to the body.]
[Illustration: _Photo by Scholastic Photo. Co_.] [_Parson's Green_.
ÆLIAN'S WART-HOG.
Displays the broad muzzle and huge tusks, which are nearly as large in the
sows as in the boars.]
The well-known BUSH-PIG OF SOUTH AFRICA, the BOSCH-VARK of the Boers, is a
fine species, having a wide range over much of the southern and
south-eastern parts of the continent, extending as far north as Central
Africa. In the Eastern Transvaal and Swaziland these animals attain their
greatest size, an adult boar standing from 2 feet 4 inches to 2 feet 7
inches in height, and weighing as much as from 150 to 170 lbs. The usual
colour is brownish red, the face and mane greyish; but in different
specimens and at different ages great variations are to be noticed. Pale
greyish brown or mottled brown are colours often to be found. These
bush-pigs are formidable-looking creatures, with thick bristling manes,
small deep-set eyes, and sharp if somewhat short tusks, which they know
well how to use. Among the old-fashioned Boers cured hams from these
animals were, when they were more plentiful in Cape Colony, often to be
found in up-country farmhouses. The bosch-vark is a beast of shy, nocturnal
habit, and, loving as it does the shade and protection of dense covert and
bush, is, unless carefully sought for, not often seen by sportsmen. The
herds range usually from half a dozen to as many as twenty in number. When
once encountered and set up at bay, this wild swine will be found a most
tough and courageous adversary, capable and willing to defend itself
stoutly against all foes. "They are," says Mr. F. Vaughan Kirby, who has
had much experience in hunting these animals, "expert swimmers and swift of
foot, and can get over the roughest ground at a great pace. There is no
pluckier beast in Africa than a bush-pig, and even a leopard will hesitate
before attacking a full-grown boar. Like all wild creatures, they have an
instinctive dread of man, and will always make their escape from him if
possible; but if surrounded or wounded and brought to bay, they appear to
accept the situation with stolid imperturbability, and die fighting with
rare pluck, against all odds, grim and silent to the last.... Face to face
in the middle of a 'fast' bush, and only a Swazi 'stabbing-assegai' with
which to kill him, ... I have seen an old boar, after receiving nine
thrusts from those terrible weapons, two of which were still fast in him,
make a charge that scattered us like chaff, and in three consecutive lunges
lame one of our number for life, and disembowel two of the finest
'pig-dogs' I ever hunted with. In such encounters a boar inflicts terrible
wounds with his teeth, as well as with his tusks." Few men care to face a
wart-hog on foot.
Another bush-pig is found in Madagascar, and is known as EDWARDS' BUSH-PIG.
Its habits are very similar to those of its brethren in the neighbouring
continent of Africa.
[Illustration: _Photo by Scholastic Photo. Co_.] [_Parson's Green_.
HEAD OF MALE WART-HOG.
Profile showing the large conical warty growths on the side of the face so
characteristic of these animals.]
THE BABIRUSA.
Quitting the true pigs, we come now to perhaps the very strangest and most
singular of all the great tribe of swine. This is the Babirusa, that
curious and grotesque creature found in the island of Celebes, in the Malay
Archipelago. The name Babirusa signifies "pig-deer." It is of course a
misnomer, and the animal has no kinship whatever with the cervine race. The
babirusa is a wild swine, having a dark slate-grey skin, very sparsely
covered with hair along the ridge of the spine. This skin is very
extraordinarily wrinkled. The ears are much smaller than is the case with
other members of the swine group, while the tail is short, straight, and
lacks any semblance of tuft. The females have small tusks. In the boars the
tusks are most singularly and abnormally developed. From the upper jaw,
instead of curving from the side of the lips, the tusks grow from the
centre of the muzzle, penetrate right through the skin, and curve backwards
often till they touch the forehead. The lower tusks have also a strong
curve, but are not so long as those of the upper jaw. Although thus
superabundantly provided with tushes, the babirusa is, as regards the rest
of its teeth, less well off, having only thirty-four, as against the
forty-four of the European wild boar. In their habits these singular pigs
much resemble other wild swine, going in herds and frequenting forest,
jungle, and the banks of rivers. They are excellent swimmers. The young
are, unlike other wild swine in the infant state, unstriped. These animals
are often found domesticated about the dwellings of native chiefs in
Celebes. The weight of a good male is as much as 128 lbs.; height at
shoulder, 27½ inches. The longest tusk recorded measures 17 inches over the
curve. These animals are driven into nets and speared by the natives of
Celebes, and afford excellent sport, the boars especially charging
viciously at their assailants.
THE WART-HOGS.
If the babirusa of the Malay Archipelago is a sufficiently bizarre-looking
creature, the wart-hog of Africa yields to none of the wild pigs in sheer,
downright hideousness of aspect. THE WART-HOG OF SOUTH AFRICA, the
VLAKTE-VARK (Pig of the Plains) of the Boers, has long been familiar to
hunters and naturalists. Standing some 30 inches in height, this wild swine
is distinguished by the disproportionate size of the head, extreme length,
breadth, and flatness of the front of the face and muzzle, smallish ears,
huge tusks, and the strange wart-like protuberances from which it takes its
name. Three of these wen-like growths are found on each side of the face.
The tusks of the upper jaw, unlike the teeth of the true pigs, are much
larger than those protruding from the lower jaw. The lower tusks seldom
exceed 6 inches in length; those of the upper jaw occasionally reach as
much as 20 inches over the curve. A pair from North-east Africa (Annesley
Bay, on the Abyssinian littoral) measure respectively 27 and 26
inches--truly gigantic trophies. The skin of this wild hog is nearly naked,
except upon the neck and back, where a long, coarse main of dark bristly
hair is to be observed. Wart-hogs, as their Dutch name implies, in the days
when game was plentiful, were often found in open country, on the broad
grass-plains and karroos. At the present day they are less often seen in
the open. They run in small family parties, usually two or three sows and
their litters. The old boars, throughout a great part of the year, prefer a
more solitary existence. These animals, when pursued, usually betake
themselves to an open earth, not of their own making, and, slewing round
sharply just as they enter, make their way in hind end first. They afford
no great sport to the hunter, and are usually secured with a rifle-bullet.
The flesh is fairly good eating, especially that of a young and tender
specimen. Speaking generally, wart-hogs are nothing like such fierce and
determined opponents as the wild boars of Europe and India, or even the
bush-pig. They will, however, charge occasionally, and have been known to
attack and rip up a horse. A northern species--ÆLIAN'S WART-HOG--is found
in Abyssinia, Somaliland, and other parts of East Africa, where--especially
in Abyssinia--it roams the mountains and their vicinity, occasionally to a
height of 9,000 or 10,000 feet. There is little difference between this and
the southern form. Wart-hogs produce usually three or four young, and the
sow makes her litter in a disused burrow. Unlike those of the majority of
wild swine, the young of the wart-hog are uniformly coloured, having no
white stripes or spots.
[Illustration: _Photo by W. P. Dando_] [_Regent's Park._
COLLARED PECCARY.
Peccaries are the New World representatives of the Swine, and are
characterised by a large gland on the back.]
THE PECCARIES.
Peculiar to the American Continent, the PECCARIES differ considerably from
the wild swine of the Old World. They are of small size; the dentition is
not the same, the stomach is more complicated in structure, and the hind
feet have three instead of four toes. In general appearance peccaries are
not unlike small dark-coloured pig, well covered with bristles, and having,
as well as a prominent mane, a deep fringe of hair beneath the throat. They
are essentially forest-loving animals, roaming over large tracts of country
and making considerable migrations in search of food. Two species have been
distinctly identified by naturalists--the COLLARED PECCARY, and the
WHITE-LIPPED PECCARY. Of these, the former species is found from Texas, in
North America, as far south as the Rio Negro, in Patagonia. The habitat of
the white-lipped peccary is more circumscribed, and the animal is seldom
found except in that part of South and Central America lying between
British Honduras and Paraguay. No members of the Pig Family are fiercer or
more tenacious of their sanctuaries than the white-lipped peccary, which
roams the dense forests of Brazil and Paraguay in large herds. A human
being, attacked and surrounded by a herd of these savage little creatures,
would indeed stand but a poor chance of his life, and many a hunter and
traveller has been compelled to seek refuge in a tree and sustain some
hours of siege. Of the two species, the white-lipped peccary is somewhat
the larger, standing from 15 to 17½ inches in height. The collared peccary
averages from 13½ to 15½ inches. The flesh of these wild swine is not in
much repute, and unless the back-gland is at once cut out a freshly killed
specimen will become quickly spoiled as a human food-supply. Young
peccaries appear to be easily tamed, fierce as is their nature in the wild
state. In contrast with the abundant litters of other pigs, wild and
domesticated, only one offspring is ordinarily produced at birth. In
fighting, the peccary does not rip like the wild boar, but inflicts savage
and severe bites.
"Untrained dogs," says President Roosevelt, "even those of a large size,
will speedily be killed by a single peccary, and if they venture to attack
a herd will be literally torn into shreds. A big trained dog, however, can,
single-handed, kill a peccary, and I have known the feat performed several
times."
Azara, the eminent Spanish naturalist of the end of the eighteenth century,
had considerable experience of the peccaries of Central and Southern
America, where the Indians are much addicted to taming wild animals, and
keep both the peccary and the tapir in a state of semi-domestication. The
peccary he found to be domesticated more easily than might be expected.
Though so fierce in its wild state, it soon becomes troublesome from its
familiarity.
Mr. Schomburgk, the explorer of Central America, whose travels were so
constantly quoted during the Venezuelan arbitration, saw much of the
white-lipped species in the forests. He found the animals in large troops
under the leadership of an old boar. When attacked, they were ready to
surround man, dog, or jaguar; and if there were no means of escape, the
enemy was certain to be cut to pieces. He himself had a narrow escape from
an infuriated herd, the leader of which he shot in the act of rushing at
him. As the herd approached the sound was like that of a whirlwind through
the bushes.
[Illustration: _Photo by Scholastic Photo. Co._] [_Parson's Green._
A YOUNG COLLARED PECCARY.
In this specimen the white collar from which the species takes its name is
very clearly displayed.]
THE HIPPOPOTAMUS.
BY F. C. SELOUS.
Two species of the Hippopotamus Family exist on the earth to-day, both of
which are inhabitants of Africa, and are not found in any other country;
but the remains of many extinct forms of this genus which have been
discovered in various parts of Europe and Asia show that in Pleistocene and
Pliocene times these strange and uncouth animals must have been widely
distributed throughout the greater part of the Old World. The fossil
remains of the large form of hippopotamus which once frequented the lakes
and rivers of England and Western Europe cannot be distinguished from the
bones of the common African species of to-day, which latter is possibly the
only animal in the world which has undergone no change in form or structure
since the prehistoric savages of the Thames Valley threw stone-headed
spears at their enemies.
The COMMON HIPPOPOTAMUS, though it has long been banished from the Lower
Nile, and has more recently been practically exterminated in the British
colonies south of the Limpopo, was once an inhabitant of every lake and
river throughout the entire African Continent from the delta of the Nile to
the neighbourhood of Cape Town. Now it is not found below Khartum, on the
Nile; but in Southern Africa a few hippopotamuses are said still to exist
in the lower reaches of the Orange River. When Van Riebeck first landed at
the Cape, in 1652, he found some of these animals in the swamp now occupied
by Church Square, in the centre of Cape Town, and the last in the district
was only killed in the Berg River, about seventy miles north of that city,
as recently as 1874. This animal, which had been protected for some years,
was at last shot, as it had become very savage, and was in the habit of
attacking any one who approached it. In my own experience I have met with
the hippopotamus in all the large rivers of Africa where I have travelled,
such as the Zambesi, Kafukwe, Chobi, Sabi, Limpopo, and Usutu, and also in
most of the many large streams which take their rise on the plateau of
Matabililand and Mashonaland, and flow north, south, and east into the
Zambesi, the Limpopo, or the Sabi. I have also seen them in the sea, at the
mouth of the Quillimani River, and have heard from natives that they will
travel by sea from the mouth of one river to another.
[Illustration: _By permission of Herr Carl Hagenbeck, Hamburg._
A THREE-YEAR-OLD HIPPOPOTAMUS.
In this specimen the great lower tusks are not yet developed.]
Hippopotamuses live either in families of a few individuals or in herds
that may number from twenty to thirty members. Old bulls are often met with
alone, and cows when about to calve will sometimes leave their companions
and live for a time in seclusion, returning, however, to the herd soon
after the birth of their calves. Although, owing to the shortness of its
legs, a hippopotamus bull does not stand very high at the shoulder--about 4
feet 8 inches being the average height--yet its body is of enormous bulk. A
male which died some years ago in the Zoological Gardens of London measured
12 feet in length from the nose to the root of the tail, and weighed 4
tons; and these dimensions are probably often exceeded in a wild state.
[Illustration: _Photo by J. W. McLellan_] [_Highbury._
HIPPOPOTAMUS DRINKING.
The enormous breadth of the muzzle, as well as the small nostrils, which
can be closed at will, are clearly displayed in this posture.]
The huge mouth of the hippopotamus (see Coloured Plate), which the animal
is fond of opening to its widest extent, is furnished with very large
canine and incisor teeth, which are kept sharp by constantly grinding one
against another, and thus enable their possessor to rapidly cut down great
quantities of the coarse grass and reeds upon which these animals
exclusively feed when living in uninhabited countries. When, however, their
haunts are in the neighbourhood of native villages, they often commit great
havoc in the corn-fields of the inhabitants, trampling down as much as they
eat; and it was their fondness for sugar-cane which brought about the
destruction of the last herd of hippopotamuses surviving in Natal.
The lower canine teeth or tusks of the hippopotamus grow to a great size,
and in bulls may weigh from 4 lbs. to 7 lbs. each. They are curved in
shape, and when extracted from the jaw form a complete half-circle, and
have been known to measure upwards of 30 inches over the curve. In life,
however, not more than a third of their length protrudes beyond the gums.
During the daytime hippopotamuses are seldom met with out of the water.
They lie and doze all day long in the deep pools of the rivers they
frequent, with only their eyes, ears, and nostrils above the surface, or
else bask in the sun on the tail of a sandbank, looking like so many
gigantic pigs with their bodies only partially submerged. Sometimes they
will lie and sleep entirely out of water amongst reeds. I have seen them
feeding in the reed-beds of the great swamps of the Chobi just at sundown,
but as a rule, they do not leave the water until after dark. At night they
often wander far afield, especially in the rainy season, in search of
suitable food; and after having been fired at and frightened, I have known
a herd of hippopotamuses to travel at least five-and-twenty miles along the
course of a river during the ensuing night, in order to reach a larger and
deeper pool than the one in which they had been molested.
[Illustration: _Photo by Lord Delamere_] [_Northwich._
HIPPOPOTAMUSES BATHING.
A hippopotamus stays under water for about 2½ minutes at a time, and then
just shows part of its head above water while it draws a fresh breath.]
Although the hippopotamus is thoroughly at home in the hottest parts of
Africa, and appears to thrive in the tepid waters of all the rivers which
flow through the malarious coast regions of the tropical portions of that
continent, it is also found at a considerable altitude above the sea, and
in quite small streams where the temperature of the water during the winter
months cannot be many degrees above freezing-point. I have personally met
with hippopotamuses in the Manyami River, not far from the present town of
Salisbury, in Mashonaland. The country there has an altitude of about 5,000
feet above sea-level; and the water was so cold on the last occasion on
which I came across the animals in question--July, 1887--that, if a
basinful was left out during the night, ice quite an eighth of an inch in
thickness would be formed over it before morning. There was, however, never
any ice on the river itself. During the rainy season, when the grass and
reeds are green and succulent, hippopotamuses become enormously fat,
especially in the higher and colder portions of their range, and retain a
good deal of their fat right through the driest season of the year. Old
bulls are usually very lean; but I have seen cows the greater part of whose
carcases, after the skin had been stripped off, was covered with a layer of
fat from 1 inch to 2 inches in thickness. The meat of these animals is dark
red in colour, and more like beef than pork. To my mind, that of a young
animal is most excellent in flavour, and far preferable to that of a lean
antelope. The fat, when prepared, is as good as the best lard, from which,
indeed, it is hardly distinguishable. The skin of the hippopotamus is
smooth and hairless, and in adult animals quite 1½ inch in thickness on the
upper parts of the body.
[Illustration: _Photo by J. W. McLellan, Highbury._
A HIPPOPOTAMUS GAPING.
The position of the animal displays the enormous capacity, and likewise the
powerful lower tusks; the shortness of the limbs is also well exhibited.]
[Illustration: _By permission of Herr Carl Hagenbeck_] [_Hamburg._
BABY HIPPOPOTAMUS, AGED SIX MONTHS.
The flesh of a young hippopotamus is said to have an excellent flavour.
Natives often follow shooting expeditions in order to secure some of its
meat.]
Hippopotamuses are said to be capable of remaining under water for ten or
twelve minutes. Should, however, a herd of these animals be watched but not
fired at from the bank of a river in which they are passing the day, they
will all sink below the surface of the water as soon as they become aware
of and more or less alarmed by the presence of the intruder, but each
member of the herd will come up to breathe at intervals of from one to two
minutes. I have seen hippopotamuses so tame and unsuspicious of danger that
they allowed me--the first human being probably with any kind of hat or
clothes on him that they had ever seen--to take up a position within fifty
yards of them on the edge of the deep rock-bound pool in which they were
resting without showing any signs of alarm. They simply stared at me in an
inquisitive sort of way, raising their heads higher out of the water, and
constantly twitching their little rounded ears; and it was not until a
number of natives came up and began to talk loudly that they took alarm,
and, sinking out of sight, retreated to the farther end of the pool. I once
took the length of time with my watch for more than an hour that a
hippopotamus which I was trying to shoot remained under water. This animal,
a cow with a new-born calf, had made an attack upon one of my canoes. It
first came up under the canoe, tilting one end of it into the air and
almost filling it with water. Then it made a rush at the half-swamped
craft, and, laying its huge head over it, pressed it down under the water
and sank it. There were four natives in the canoe at the time of the
attack, all of whom swam safely to an island in the river--the Zambesi.
After the accident--which caused me a good deal of loss and
inconvenience--I tried to shoot this unprovoked aggressor, but
unsuccessfully, as the river was too broad to allow me to get anything but
a long shot at her. The shortest time she remained under water during the
seventy minutes I was paying attention to her was forty seconds, and the
longest four minutes and twenty seconds--the usual time being from two to
two and a half minutes. She always remained a long time under water after
having been fired at.
The capsizing of canoes by these animals is quite a common occurrence on
most African rivers, and the great pains the natives will take in certain
districts to give these animals a wide berth seem to prove that they have
good reason to dread them. Solitary bulls and cows with young calves are
the most feared. Such animals will sometimes, I have been assured by the
natives, tear out the side of a canoe with their teeth, and even crunch up
some of its occupants whilst they are trying to save themselves by
swimming. Sipopo, a chief of the Barotse tribe, who was deposed by his
nephew Mona Wena in 1876, was said to have been attacked and killed by a
hippopotamus whilst lying wounded amongst the reeds on the southern bank of
the Zambesi, but I cannot vouch for the truth of the story.
Bull hippopotamuses must be rather quarrelsome, as I have shot several
whose hides were deeply scored with wounds, no doubt inflicted by the tusks
of their rivals. Once I killed a hippopotamus in a shallow lagoon amongst
the swamps of the Chobi, whose enormously thick hide had been literally cut
to pieces from head to tail. The entire body of this animal was covered
with deep white scores, and we were unable to cut a single sjambok from its
skin. We found, on examination, that this poor beast had been wounded by
natives, and then in its distress most cruelly set upon by its fellows, and
finally expelled from their society. It was in the last stage of
emaciation, and a bullet through the brain must have been a welcome relief.
On another occasion a hippopotamus bull, which I had wounded in the nose,
became so furious that it dived down and attacked one of its fellows which
had already been killed and was lying dead at the bottom of the pool.
Seizing this latter animal by the hind leg, it brought it to the surface of
the water with such a furious rush that not only half the body of the dead
animal it had attacked was exposed, but the whole of its own head and
shoulders came above the water. A bullet through the brain killed it
instantly, and it sank to the bottom of the pool, still holding its
companion's hind leg fast in its jaws.
[Illustration: DENTAL OPERATIONS ON A HIPPOPOTAMUS--NO. I.
This and the next two photographs probably constitute the most remarkable
series of animal photographs ever seen. No 1 shows a hippopotamus about to
be trapped, preparatory to having its teeth attended to.]
When a hippopotamus is killed in the water, the carcase sinks to the
bottom, and in the cold water of the rivers of Mashonaland will not rise to
the surface till six hours after death. In the warmer water of the Lower
Zambesi a dead hippopotamus will come up in about half that time. When it
rises, the carcase comes up like a submerged cork, with a rush as it were,
and then settles down, only a small piece of the side showing above the
surface. As decomposition sets in, it becomes more and more swollen, and
shows higher and higher above the water. When the body of a dead
hippopotamus has been taken by the wind or current to the wrong side of a
river, I have often climbed on to it and paddled it with a stout stick
right across the river to a spot nearer camp. A dead hippopotamus is not
the easiest or the pleasantest thing to sit on in deep water with
crocodiles about, especially in a wind, as it is very much like sitting on
a floating barrel, and unless the balance is exactly maintained one is
bound to roll off.
[Illustration: DENTAL OPERATIONS ON A HIPPOPOTAMUS--NO. II.
This shows the process of filing one of the lower tusks.]
[Illustration: DENTAL OPERATIONS ON A HIPPOPOTAMUS--NO. III.
Sawing off one of the lower tusks.]
Although it is often necessary for an African traveller to shoot one or
more of them in order to obtain a supply of meat for his native followers,
there is not much sport attached to the killing of these animals. The
modern small-bore rifles, with their low trajectory and great penetration,
render their destruction very easy when they are encountered in small lakes
or narrow rivers, though in larger sheets of water, where they must be
approached and shot from rickety canoes, it is by no means a simple matter
to kill hippopotamuses, especially after they have grown shy and wary
through persecution. As these animals are almost invariably killed by
Europeans in the daytime, and are therefore encountered in the water, they
are usually shot through the brain as they raise their heads above the
surface to breathe. By the natives hippopotamuses are killed in various
ways. They are sometimes attacked first with harpoons, to which long lines
are attached, with a float at the end to mark the position of the wounded
animal, and then followed up in canoes and finally speared to death.
Sometimes they are caught in huge pitfalls, or killed by the fall of a
spear-head fixed in a heavy block of wood, which is released from its
position when a line, attached to the weight and then pegged across a
hippopotamus's path a few inches above the ground, is suddenly pulled by
the feet of one of these animals striking against it. A friend of mine once
had a horse killed under him by a similar trap set for buffaloes. His
horse's feet struck the line attached to the heavily weighted spear-head,
and down it came, just missing his head and entering his horse's back close
behind the saddle. Where the natives have guns--mostly old muzzle-loading
weapons of large bore--they often shoot hippopotamuses at close quarters
when they are feeding at night. The most destructive native method,
however, of killing these monsters with which I am acquainted is one which
used to be practised by the natives of Northern Mashonaland--namely,
fencing in a herd of these animals and starving them to death. As there is
a very rapid fall in the country through which all the rivers run to the
Zambesi from the northern slope of Mashonaland, these streams consist of a
series of deep, still pools (called "sea-cow holes" by the old hunters),
from a hundred yards to more than a mile in length, connected with one
another by shallow, swift-flowing water, often running in several small
streams over the bed of the river. A herd of hippopotamuses having been
found resting for the day in one of the smaller pools, all the natives in
the district, men, women, and children, would collect and build strong
fences across the shallows at each end. At night large fires would be kept
blazing all round the pool and tom-toms beaten incessantly, in order to
prevent the imprisoned animals from escaping. Day after day the fences
would be strengthened, and platforms sometimes built to command naturally
weak places, and from these points of vantage the poor animals were speared
when in their desperation they tried to leave the pool. Gradually the whole
herd would be speared or starved to death.
[Illustration: _Photo by York & Son_] [_Notting Hill._
FEMALE HIPPOPOTAMUSES.
Exhibits a very characteristic attitude of the animal.]
[Illustration: _Photo by York & Son_] [_Notting Hill._
A HIPPOPOTAMUS FAMILY--FATHER, MOTHER, AND YOUNG.
Hippopotamuses are very sociable animals, and are often to be met with in
large herds.]
Once, in August, 1880, I came upon a native tribe engaged in starving to
death a herd of hippopotamuses in a pool of the Umniati River, in Northern
Mashonaland. When I came on the scene, there were ten hippopotamuses still
alive in the pool. Eight of these appeared to be standing on a sandbank in
the middle of the river, as more than half their bodies were above the
water. They were all huddled up together, their heads resting on each
other's bodies. Two others were swimming about, each with a heavily shafted
assegai sticking in its back. Besides these ten still living hippopotamuses
two dead ones were being cut up on the side of the pool, and many more must
already have been killed, as all round the pool festoons of meat were
hanging on poles to dry, and a large number of natives had been living for
some time on nothing but hippopotamus-meat. Altogether I imagine that a
herd of at least twenty animals must have been destroyed. Much as one must
regret such a wholesale slaughter, it must be remembered that this great
killing was the work of hungry savages, who at any rate utilised every
scrap of the meat thus obtained, and much of the skin as well, for food;
and such an incident is far less reprehensible--indeed, stands on quite a
different plane as regards moral guilt--to the wanton destruction of a
large number of hippopotamuses in the Umzingwani River, near Bulawayo,
within a few months of the conquest of Matabililand by the Chartered
Company's forces in 1893. These animals had been protected for many years
by Lo Bengula and his father Umziligazi before him; but no sooner were the
Matabili conquered and their country thrown open to white men than certain
unscrupulous persons destroyed all but a very few of these half-tame
animals, for the sake of the few paltry pieces of money their hides were
worth!
[Illustration: _Photo by G. W. Wilson & Co., Ltd._] [_Aberdeen._
HIPPOPOTAMUS.
The skin of the hippopotamus is often as much as an inch and a half in
thickness on the upper parts of the body.]
Gradually, as the world grows older, more civilised, and, to my thinking,
less and less interesting, the range of the hippopotamus, like that of all
other large animals, must become more and more circumscribed; but now that
all Africa has been parcelled out amongst the white races of Western
Europe, if the indiscriminate killing of hippopotamuses by either white men
or natives can be controlled, and the constant and cruel custom of firing
at the heads of these animals from the decks of river-steamers all over
Africa be put a stop to, I believe that this most interesting mammal, owing
to the nature of its habitat, and the vast extent of the rivers, swamps,
and lakes in which it still exists in considerable numbers, will long
outlive all other pachydermatous animals. Hideous, uncouth, and unnecessary
as the hippopotamus may seem when viewed from behind the bars of its den in
a zoological garden, it is nevertheless true that, when these animals have
been banished from an African river by the progress of civilisation, that
river has lost one of its highest charms and greatest ornaments.
The PYGMY or LIBERIAN HIPPOPOTAMUS is confined to Upper Guinea, and,
compared with its only existing relative, is a very small animal, not
standing more than 2 feet 6 inches in height, and measuring less than 6
feet in length. In weight a full-grown specimen will scale about 400 lbs.
But little is known of the habits of this rare animal, specimens of which,
I believe, have never been obtained, except by the German naturalists Herrn
Büttikofer and Jentink. When alive, the colour of the skin of the pygmy
hippopotamus is said to be of a greenish black, changing on the under-parts
to yellowish green. The surface of the skin is very shiny. This species,
unlike its giant relative, does not congregate in herds, nor pass its days
in rivers or lakes, but lives in pairs in marshes or shady forests. It
sleeps during the day, and at night wanders over a great extent of country,
eating grass, wild fruits, and the young shoots of trees. Its flesh is said
to be very succulent and much esteemed by the natives.
[Illustration: _Photo by York & Son_] [_Notting Hill._
MALE AND FEMALE HIPPOPOTAMUSES.
A hippopotamus is almost inseparable from the water; it never goes farther
away than possible from a river or lake.]
A hippopotamus, apparently of the same species as that now found in Africa,
formerly inhabited the Thames Valley. Great quantities of fossil remains of
another species are also found in the island of Sicily. The bones found in
England are mainly in the river gravel and brick earth of the south and
midland districts of England. This seems to show that at the time when the
animal existed our rivers must have been open all the year, and not
ice-bound, for it is certain that no hippopotamus could live in a river
which froze in winter. Yet among the remains of these animals are also
found those of quite arctic species like the Musk-ox and the Reindeer,
together with those of the Saiga Antelope, an inhabitant of the cold
plateau of Tibet. The problem is: How could these creatures, one a dweller
in warm rivers and the others inhabitants of cold arctic or sub-arctic
regions, have existed together, apparently on the same area of ground? The
answer, which does not seem to have occurred to naturalists who have
discussed the question, seems to be plain enough. Any one who knows the
conditions of the great rift valleys of Central Africa has the key to the
solution of the puzzle. There was probably a very great difference in the
vertical plane. Deep in the rift was probably a warm river, while above it
may have been mountains from 10,000 to 20,000 feet high, with snow on the
summits and glaciers in their valleys. On these cold and arctic heights the
reindeer and the musk-ox would find congenial homes. Thousands of feet
below, in the hot and narrow valley, the hippopotamus would revel in a warm
and steamy climate. This is what actually occurs in the rift valleys of
Central Africa, where the hippopotamus swims in rivers that are at no great
distance from snow-covered and ice-capped mountains.
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