THE HIPPOPOTAMUS IN ENGLAND.
IN the year 1850 there was exhibited in London a living Hippopotamus, for many centuries the only instance of this extraordinary animal being seen in Europe.
There is something irresistibly striking in seeing a living animal, not one of whose species we have before seen, and especially when that animal is a large one, as in the instance before us. We had been wonderstruck at forms of this creature in the old British Museum, where were two finely-preserved specimens. The Rhinoceros alive was, until of late years, very rare in England. In 1834 Mr. Cross paid some 1,500l. for a young Indian one-horned Rhinoceros, this being the only one brought to England for twenty years. He proved attractive, but slightly so in comparison with the expectation of a living Hippopotamus, never witnessed before in this country. The circumstances of his acquisition were as follows:—
The Zoological Society of London had long been anxious to obtain a living Hippopotamus for their menagerie, but without success. An American agent at Alexandria had offered 5,000l. for an animal of this species, but in vain; no speculator could be induced to encounter the risk and labour of an expedition to the White Nile for the purpose of securing the animal. The desire of the Zoological Society was communicated to the Viceroy of Egypt, who saw the difficulty. Hasselquist states it to have been impossible to bring the living animal to Cairo; and the French savans, attached to the expedition to Egypt, who ascended the Nile above Syene, did not meet with one Hippopotamus. Caillaud, however, asserts that he saw forty Hippopotami in the Upper Nile, though their resort lay fifteen hundred miles or more from Cairo. Here they were often shot with rifle-balls, but to take one alive was another matter. However, by command of the Viceroy, the proper parties were sent in search of the animal.
In August, 1849, the hunters having reached the island of Fobaysch, on the White Nile, about 2,000 miles above Cairo, shot a large female Hippopotamus in full chase up the river. The wounded creature turned aside and made towards some bushes on the island bank, but sank dead in the effort. The hunters, however, kept on towards the bushes, when a young Hippopotamus, supposed to have been recently brought forth, not much bigger than a new-born calf, but stouter and lower, rushed down the bank of the river, was secured by a boatman and lifted into the boat. The captors started with their charge down the Nile. The food of their young animal was their next anxiety; he liked neither fish, flesh, fruit, nor grass. The boat next stopped at a village; their cows were seized and milked, and the young charge lapped up the produce. A good milch cow was taken on board, and with this supply the Hippopotamus reached Cairo. The colour of his skin at this time was a dull reddish brown. He was shown to the Pasha in due form; the present created intense wonder and interest in Cairo; gaping crowds filled its narrow sandy streets, and a whale at London-bridge would scarcely excite half so much curiosity.
It being thought safer for the animal to winter in Cairo than to proceed forthwith on his journey, the Consul had duly prepared to receive the young stranger, for whom he had engaged a sort of nurse. Hamet Safi Cannana. An apartment was allotted to the Hippopotamus in the court-yard of the Consul's house, leading to a warm or tepid bath. His milk-diet, however, became a troublesome affair, for the new comer never drank less than from twenty to thirty quarts daily.
By the next mail after the arrival of the Hippopotamus, the Consul despatched the glad tidings to the Zoological Society. The animal was shipped at Alexandria, in the Ripon steamer. On the main deck was built a house, from which were steps down into an iron tank in the hold, containing 400 gallons of water, as a bath: it was filled with fresh water every other day.
Early in May, the Hippopotamus was conveyed in the canal-boat, with Hamet Safi Cannana, to Alexandria, where the debarkation was witnessed by 10,000 spectators. The animal bore the voyage well. He lived exclusively on milk, of which he consumed daily about forty pints, yielded by the cows taken on board. He was very tame, and, like a faithful dog, followed his Arab attendant Hamet, who was seldom away more than five minutes without being summoned to return by a loud grunt. Hamet slept in a berth with the Hippopotamus. On May 25 they were landed at Southampton, and sent by railway to London. On arriving at the Zoological Society's Gardens, Hamet walked first out of the transport van, with a bag of dates over his shoulder, and the Hippopotamus trotted after him. Next morning he greatly enjoyed the bath which had been prepared for him. Although scarcely twelve months old, his massive proportions indicated the enormous power to be developed in his maturer growth; while the grotesque expression of his physiognomy far exceeded all that could be imagined from the stuffed specimens in museums, and the figures which had hitherto been published from the reminiscences of travellers.