HIPPOPOTAMUS, in natural history, a genus of Mammalia, of the order Bel lux. Generic character : four front teeth in each jaw ; the upper ones distant, in pairs ; the lower ones prominent ; the two intermediate ones longest ; tusks"soli tary those of the lower jaw very large, long, curved, and obliquely truncated; feet hoofed at the margin. This animal appears very naturally to have attracted the early attention of mankind, and is sup. posed, by most critics acquainted with na tural history, to be the behemoth, so sub limely described in the book of Job. The Greek and Roman writers have also al luded to it ; but their observations upon it are by no means such as could have re sulted from accurate and philosophical observation ; and both Aristotle and Pliny have fallen, on this subject, into the most absurd deviations from truth. Indeed, it is only recently that clear and just repre sentations of this animal have been pub lished, with interesting circumstances re lating to its manners and habits, collected by persons whohad inclindtion and oppor tunities of particularly examining it. Dr. Sparman, and Colonel Gordon, and Mr. Mason, are particularly entitled to ho nourable mention on this occasion. The largest female which the Colonel ever had an opportunity of observing was eleven feet in length, and the largest male near ly twelve. It is stated, however, on re spectable authority, that they are fre quently much larger ; and Mr. Bruce re ports, that they are occasionally found even of the length of twenty feet. The form of the hippopotamus is particularly awkward : its head is astonishingly large, and its body extremely fat and round ; its legs are very short and thick, and its teeth are of vast strength and size : one ofthem is stated to weigh no less than three pounds ; occasionally, each of the tusks weighs even six ; the whole animal is co vered with short hair ; its skin is so tough, as in some parts to resist a bullet ; and its colour, when dry, is an obscure brown. It inhabits the warmer latitudes, and is to be found chiefly in the interior of Africa, dwelling in the largest rivers, in which it ranges at the bottom, sometimes reaching the surface for the purpose of respiration. It sometimes quits the rivers for the sea, merely, as is supposed, for the sake of expatriating with greater freedom, as it ne ver drinks salt water, and eats no fish, and indeed takes no animal food whatever. By night it quits the water to feed, and devours a vast quantity of grass, and the tender branches of trees. Its disposition has nothing in it sanguinary or ferocious; it never attacks other animals. It fre
quently commits great depredations on the plantations of corn or sugar, which ate within the reach of its nocturnal pro grv.ses, and by destroying with its vast teeth the roots of trees. Its motion on land is generally not only highly inelegant, but slow ; yet, if surprised and pursued, it runs with great speed till it reaches the water, into which it instantly plunges; and, though it is able to swim with great rapidity, its progress in the water is at the bottom by walking. If wounded in the water, it sometimes is highly infuriated, and has been known to attack the boats or canoes, which it supposed to contain its enemy, and overturn them by its vast strength, or sink them by making a large hole in them with its teeth. It produces but one at a birth, generally in the little rushy isles of the rivers which it frequents; and in these inlets it generally sleeps. When taken young, it is capable of being tamed. These animals are sometimes seen in considerable numbers, ranging forseveral miles beyond the banks of their rivers. They are often shot by the Afri cans, and frequently taken by the har poon ; pitfalls also are sometimes dug for them. They are valued by the natives of Africa for food, and the fat which it sup plies is supposed to be equal to that of the hog: The feet are highly gelatinous, and regarded as a peculiar delicacy. With their skins the warriors of Africa are furnished with shields and bucklers. The grand motive to destroy these ani mals, however, is the value of their tusks, which are whiter than those of the ele phant, and retain their original clearness and beauty. They are likewise of a hard er consistance, and are, on both these ac counts, preferred by dentists, for artifi cial teeth, to every other substance.
In the ./Edileship of Scaurus a tempo rary lake was formed, into which he in troduced four crocodiles and a hippopo tamus, for the entertainment of the Ro man people ; and Augustus, in his tri umph over Cleopatra, amidst many other objects characteristic of Egypt, exhibited a hippopotamus. In Upper Egypt, and in the fens of Ethiopia, traversed and in undated by the Nile, these animals are more particularly abundant. Only one species is known to exist, but the cele brated Cuvier has discovered the fossil remains of two species, perfectly distinct from each other; but one of them was probably the same as the present African kind. For the Hippopotamus, see Mam malia, Plate X. fig. 2.