It has the power of breathing out the air in its lungs, while under water, thus causing a bubbling upon the surface. To this, allusion is made in the book of Job, in describing the Behemoth, which is, no doubt, the hippopotamus. The accuracy of the description is striking: “He lieth,” says the inspired writer, “under the shady trees, in the covert of the reed, and fens. The shady trees cover him with their shadow: the willows of the brook compass him about. Behold he drinketh up a river, and hasteth not: he trusteth that he can draw up Jordan into his mouth.”
The hippopotamus is about eleven feet long, but not more than four or five high. His legs are so short that when he walks over soft, ploughed ground, he makes a trench in the earth as if an enormous sack had been drawn along. He is a voracious eater, and his stomach will hold five bushels at once. He makes prodigious havoc among the crops of corn, when he is hungry. His chief food, however, consists of the coarse vegetables of rivers, and his business seems to be that of a river scavenger, to clear streams of exuberant vegetation. It possesses great strength, and is respected by the other beasts, for, not even the crocodile or the lion ever molests him. He is, in fact, lord of the wilds he inhabits.
The Flying Dragon.
This little creature, in spite of his formidable name, is, in fact, a very harmless fellow, of the lizard race, and about ten inches in length. It lives on trees, and devours insects that come in its way. It is found in Asia and Africa.
The Snail.
This creature, apparently so insignificant, is one of the greatest curiosities of nature. The animal consists of a soft, pulpy substance, with a curious shell, which serves as a house, and to which it always is attached. When the snail wishes to go from one place to another, he drags his shell along on his back; when he wishes to take some rest, or when he is frightened, he draws himself into his shell.
This little creature has almost as complete a set of the organs of life, as the larger animals: he has a mouth, eyes, tongue, brain, nerves, stomach, liver, heart, muscles, &c. But some of these are curiously contrived. Its eyes, for instance, it carries on the points of its long horns, which it passes about in various directions, thus seeing everything that is going on near it.
Under its two smaller horns, for it has four, is the snail’s mouth; and though it might seem too pulpy an animal to have teeth, yet it has eight of them, with which it devours leaves, and even bites off pieces of its own shell!