The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-06-19

even thus, they are by no means easy TO
kill. especially when they have become
wary from experience. Harpoons are no
good except at very short range, and they
generally sleep, so to say, with one eye
open. Besides this as any one can see
at our geological gardens, hippopOtamus
in the water is anything but conspicuous.
It's huge body is immersed and little more
than Its projecting nostrils appear above
the surface. II can remain wholly under
water for at least five minutes and trav-
els easily along the bottom, for the weight
of its body is about the same as that of
an equal bulk of water. If one is killed
the carcass Immediately sinks and does
not rise again till about twenty-four hours
later, when it is buoyed up by accumulat-
ing gas.
The hunter of the hippopotamus is not
without excuse. The flesh especially the
fat is more than Dalatable The feet of
the young calf are said to make an excel
lent stew, and the skin 60 be better than
conger eel as a substitute for turtle in
soup. The thick tough hide is useful for
many purpose, among others for correc-
ton, since it makes formidable whips.
Hippopocamus ivory, a one time, found
a place in the mouth of man. being much
used for artificial teeth, so that the lake
COW was worth capturing That, no doubt,
has helped in acce,erating its departure
from the world where for a long time il
has managed to maintain existence. Ii
lived on the Lower Nile in the days of the
Pharoahs. A fresco in the old temple at
Edfu shows that it was then harpooned
by the natives much as il is now by the
SOudanese. Herodotus describes it; prob
ably it is the Behemoth of The Book of
Job, so that the animal must then have
been fairly common. Roman crowds stared
at it in the days of the empire.
Then came a long interval. and 1t was
not till 1880 that London received the first
which had again visited Europe Before
the CHRISTIAN era it haunted the Nile even
below the first cataract; it is now not
found north of DongOia, between the sec
ond and third, and is comparatively rare
till above Khartoum. AS Mr. Iydekker
| tells us, at the present day It is practical
ly restricted to the African rivers and
lakes between the 18th parallel of north
| latitude and the 25th of south latitude. But
its range in prehs ORIG times was far more
extensive. The remains of this one spe-
cies HippopOtamus amphibius Of natural
lists Qor the fossil form is Observation-Disclosures
from the living one, except that it grew
to rather larger size), have been found
over Europe from italy to Yorkshire
In those early days it managed to en-
dure even the English climate though
probably this was then much colder than
now, and it found our rivers sufficient
LOT us needs. Inc streams, no doubt
were bigger than they are at present
for in those days England stood at a high
err level, forming part of Europe. and the
rainfall probably was heavier. Still. hin
popotamus bones have been discovered
as described by Mr.. Osmond Fisher, even
in the valley of the Cam four or five
miles above Cambridge. In those days,
also, it had suitable companions; two
kinds of elephants, two of rhinoceros. Be-
sides lions and bears. horses and rein
deer and such like. It's remains, how
ever, are generally found with the partic-
ular members of this group which have
been proof against a cold climate. Man
was then upon the earth, but this hippo-
potamus, so far as we can tell. was there
before him. But it, too, had predecessors.
and the genus once enjoyed a much more
extended range. At the present day il
has one other representative-the Liber-
ian hoppopotamus-a creature hardly larg-
er than a pig-which lives in some of The
West African rivers.
In those olden times the genus was also
represented an Asia. Two species re-
manned in Central India till the closing
days of geological history-the so-caIled
Pleistocene age. In the Pliocene were