HIPPOPOTAMUS AMPHIBIUS.
endeavoured to intercept immediately became the assailant, on discovering the object of the
party, and with open mouth rushed towards the man nearest to h er; the display of her enormous
mouth, armed with formidable teeth, caused the most advanced of the hunters to retreat, and
those in the rear to pause. The flight of the hunters seemed to encourage the animal in pursuit,
and though the direction they took led her, in pursuing them, to retire from the sea, which she
had intended to enter, yet she persevered in giving chase, until one of the party who, from his
situation, had not had occasion to fly, fired a bullet into her mouth. Immediately after the wound
was inflicted, she, for an instant, stood still, and. then retreated with precipitation to the sea, in
which she was afterwards shot, having, contrary to the usual custom o f her kind, manifested a
disinclination to retire into deep water, a disinclination, no doubt arising from sensations experienced
from the wound she had received.
The sagacity of the Hippopotamus, though it is no doubt inferior to that of the Elephant, is
nevertheless very considerable. The habits of the animal are. opposed to our becoming intimately
acquainted with it—yet, from what has been noticed of its adroitness in guarding against
assailants, in avoiding pits dug purposely to entrap it, in conducting its young both in and out
o f the water, and in migrating from localities which it may have discovered are not to. be longer
held without serious danger, to others not exposed to such inconveniences,—even though to reach
those it may require to make long journeys, are all evidences that it is far from the stupid animal it
has been frequently described. Its memory may be considered tenacious, certainly superior to that
o f the Rhinoceros, and possibly equal to that of the Elephant. When once a Hippopotamus has
been assailed in its watery dwelling, and injured from incautiously exposing itself, it will rarely be
guilty of the same indiscretion a second time; and though its haunts may not again be approached
by hunters till after a long period has elapsed, it will survey such approaches, and perform the
movements necessary for its respiration with a degree of caution, which clearly shows, that
it has not forgotten the misfortunes to which an opposite course had exposed it.
The European colonist, not less than the native of South Africa, hunts the Hippopotamus with
great determination and perseverance; the former trusts entirely to fire-arms for its destruction j
the latter again trusts principally to stratagem, as with his weapons alone he is unable
to kill it under common circumstances. The high estimation in which the fatty material
that lies between the skin and the muscular parts of the Hippopotamus, and which is known
in the Cape colony by the name o f “ Speck/9 is held, is. perhaps the principal incitement
which urges the white man’s perseverance, while that, as well as the parts beneath it, are
equally objects of desire with the Native. To acquire the incisors and canine teeth, which
are valuable as articles of trade, has also long rendered its capture an object desirable to
hunters. The skin o f the animal is likewise an article of profit, as, when cut into stripes and
shaved into tapering cylinders of some feet in length, a ready market is found for them in
the colony, where, under the name of “ Sambucks,” they are employed as substitutes for
riding-whips.