The two hunters 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
until we had discharged five balls from it, at the distance of a few
feet, that the huge animal gave up the ghost. The darkness of the night
increased the danger of the contest, for this gigantic enemy tossed our
boat about in the stream at his pleasure; and it was a fortunate moment
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."
In Egypt they have a singular mode of catching the hippopotamus. They
throw large quantities of dried peas on the bank of the river along
which the animal is expected to pass. He devours these peas greedily.
The dry food disposes the animal to drink; and after drinking, the peas
swell in his stomach, and the poor fellow is destroyed.
"I have seen," says a traveler, "a hippopotamus open his mouth, fix one
tooth on the side of a boat, and another on the second plank under the
keel--that is, four feet distant from each other--pierce the side
through and through, and in this manner sink the boat." When the negroes
go a-fishing, the same traveler informs us, "in their canoes, and meet
with a hippopotamus, they throw fish to him; and then he passes on,
without disturbing their fishing any more.
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