This is among the largest of quadrupeds, being sometimes twelve feet
long, and six feet high. Its body is very massive, its legs short, and
its head large. The skin is extremely thick. It lives on the muddy
banks of rivers in Africa, diving on the approach of danger. It eats
grass, and generally feeds at night. It swims well, and walks on the
bottom with ease. The negroes of Africa hunt this animal for his flesh,
and when one of them is captured, it is the signal for a general feast.
_Effect of Music._--The enterprising and lamented traveller Clapperton
informs us that, when he was departing on a warlike expedition from
Lake Muggaby, he had convincing proofs that the hippopotami are
sensibly affected by musical sounds. "As the expedition passed along
the banks of the lake at sunrise," says he, "these uncouth and
stupendous animals followed the drums the whole length of the water,
sometimes approaching so close to the shore, that the spray they
spouted from their mouths reached the persons who were passing along
the banks. I counted fifteen, at one time, sporting on the surface of
the water."
_Hunting the Hippopotamus._--Dr. Edward Russell gives us the following
account of a hunt of the hippopotamus in Dongola: "One of the animals
that we killed was of an enormous size. We fought with him for four
good hours by night, and were very near losing our large boat, and
probably our lives too, owing to the fury of the animal. As soon as he
spied the huntsmen in the small canoe, he dashed at them with all his
might, dragged the canoe with him under water, and smashed it to
pieces. The two huntsmen escaped with difficulty. Of twenty-five
musket-balls aimed at the head, only one pierced the skin, and the
bones of the nose; at each snorting, the animal spouted out large
streams of blood on the boat. The rest of the balls stuck in the thick
hide.
"At last, we availed ourselves of a swivel; but it was not till we had
discharged five balls from it, at the distance of a few feet, that the
colossus gave up the ghost. The darkness of the night increased the
danger of the contest; for this gigantic animal tossed our boat about
in the stream at his pleasure; and it was at a fortunate moment indeed
for us that he gave up the struggle, as he had carried us into a
complete labyrinth of rocks, which, in the midst of the confusion, none
of our crew had observed."