. The naturalist's library; containing scientific and popular descriptions of man, quadrupeds, birds, fishes, reptiles and insects; . nt, the rhinoce-ros, the whale, and all other great animals, who bring forth but one; andthis analogy appears more certain than ail the testimonies that they haveexhibited. The female brings forth her young upon land, and the calf, atthe instant when it comes into the world, will fly to the water for shelter ifpursued; a circumstance which Thunberg notices as a remarkable instanceol pure instinct. Major Denham furnishes us with the following amusinraccount: — It
. The naturalist's library; containing scientific and popular descriptions of man, quadrupeds, birds, fishes, reptiles and insects; . nt, the rhinoce-ros, the whale, and all other great animals, who bring forth but one; andthis analogy appears more certain than ail the testimonies that they haveexhibited. The female brings forth her young upon land, and the calf, atthe instant when it comes into the world, will fly to the water for shelter ifpursued; a circumstance which Thunberg notices as a remarkable instanceol pure instinct. Major Denham furnishes us with the following amusinraccount: — It was intended this evening to have killed an hippopotamus, an animaJ 296 MAMMALIA—HIPPOPOTAMUS. which exists in great numbers in the lake, on the border of which we wereencamped; but a violent thunder storm, to our great disappointment, pre-vented our witnessing so novel a species of sport. The flesh is considereda great delicacy. On the morrow we had a full opportunity of convincingourselves that these uncouth and stupendous animals are very sensiblyattracted by musical sounds, even though they should not be of the softest. kind; as we passed along the borders of Lake Muggaby at sunrise, theytollowed the drums of the different chiefs the whole length of the water,sometimes approaching so close to the shore, that the water they spoutedfrom their mouths reached the persons who were passing along the counted fifteen at one time sporting on the surface; and my servantColumbus shot one of them in the head, when he gave so loud a roar, as heburied himself in the lake, that all the others disappeared in an instant. The preceding cut is copied from Thompsons Travels in Southern Africa,from which we make the following extract. The hippopotami are nume-rous in many parts of this river, (the Gariep,) and are occasionally caught bythe natives, by means of huge pitfalls dug in the paths frequented by them,when they issue from the floods, to browse on the wooded banks. Thecaptur
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1850, bookidnaturalistsl, bookyear1851
