. Lake Ngami; or, Explorations and discoveries during four years' wanderings in the wilds of southwestern Africa . eet with the greatest precipitation, some of us, inthe confusion, rushing into the fire and upsetting the potscontaining om* evening meal. The hippopotamus would seem to be easily may judge so, at least, from the fine specimens now in theZoological Gardens, Regents Park, which are as manageableas most of the lars-er animals of that maornificent establish-ment. Though these are the first living specimens that everfound their way into England, the ancient Romans (who
. Lake Ngami; or, Explorations and discoveries during four years' wanderings in the wilds of southwestern Africa . eet with the greatest precipitation, some of us, inthe confusion, rushing into the fire and upsetting the potscontaining om* evening meal. The hippopotamus would seem to be easily may judge so, at least, from the fine specimens now in theZoological Gardens, Regents Park, which are as manageableas most of the lars-er animals of that maornificent establish-ment. Though these are the first living specimens that everfound their way into England, the ancient Romans (who, dur-ing their conquests in Northern Africa, became acquaintedwith the hippopotamus) held them in captivity. This may be safely inferred; for on a medal ofthe Emperor Philip, or rather of hisQueen Otacilla Severa is (as seen inthe adjoining wood-cut) a very strik-ing likeness of a young, and, perhaps,hungry hippopotamus, designed bysome Wyon of the day. This is, per-haps, the earliest good figure of theMEDAL. creature; and its representation on such a place shows in what estimation, as a novelty, it 494 POOD FLESH HIDE TEETH. For the information of the curious in these matters, I maymention that the food of the larger of the hippopotami nowin the Regents Park Gardens, when first shipped at Alexan-dria in 1850, and when yet comparatively a baby, con-sisted of the milk of two cows and three goats. This quan-tity, however, until supplemented with Indian corn-meal, wasfound insufficient to satisfy his voracity. On his arrival atthe gardens, oatmeal wa,s substituted for Indian corn; andthe change, with an extra supply of milk, seemed to give thegigantic infant great satisfaction. By degrees, vegetable dietwas supplied instead of milk; and at the present day theanimal is fed on clover, hay, corn, chaff, bran, mangle-wur-zel, carrots, and white cabbage. The three last-named vege-tables constitute his most favorite food. On this (1 cwt. be-ing his daily allowance) he thrives
Size: 1595px × 1567px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookauthorandersso, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1850, bookyear1856
