HEAD OF HIPPOPOTAMUS.
Look at the huge, crooked tusks! What are they for?
After watching a great many times the movements of the hippopotamus, I became assured that these huge, crooked tusks, which give its mouth such a savage appearance, are designed chiefly to hook up the long river-grasses on which these animals feed in great part. I have often seen one descend to the bottom, remain a few minutes, and re-appear with its tusks strung with grass, which was then leisurely chewed up.
There are no large herds of hippopotami in the parts of Africa I have explored, like those found in South Africa, thirty being about the greatest number I have ever seen together.
CHAPTER IX.
A GREAT GORILLA.
A few days after killing the hippopotamus I took a solitary path in the woods, leading to one of the lagoons or creeks so common along this coast. Many of the trees growing in the woods belonged to a species of African teak. The soil being sandy, the forest was not dense. Here and there a cluster of palms, bearing the nut that furnishes the palm-oil, was seen. Liannes and creepers twined round some of the trees and hung gracefully down. The limbs and trunks of many trees were literally covered with orchidæ, commonly called air plant. These when in bloom bear very beautiful flowers which shed a delicious fragrance.
In many places the pine-apple plants were very abundant and grew by thousands close together.
Now and then a little stream, meandering through the woods, found its way to the creek or to the sea.