Identifier: wildgameinzambez00maug (find matches)
Title: Wild game in Zambezia
Year: 1914 (1910s)
Authors: Maugham, R. C. F. (Reginald Charles Fulke), 1866-1956
Subjects: Game and game-birds Hunting
Publisher: New York, Scribner
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation

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r thisgreat amphibian, and he can be found in them allby the seeker after specimens. Although not occurring in any portion of theglobe except in the continent of Africa, the rangeof the hippopotamus within that enormousdivision of the earths surface is extraordinarilywide. From the Nile to the waters of Zululand,and from one side of the continent to the other,it still exists in great numbers wherever sufficientof its favourite element is found to afford it apermanent home. The male measures about 14 ft. from the snoutto the tip of his tail, and is an immense and heavyanimal, coming in point of weight probably nextto the elephant, exceeding that of the black, andprobably even that of the white, rhinoceros. Hehas, moreover, the distinction of possessing thelargest mouth of any African mammal. A full-grown male would, I feel sure, be found to weighnearly, if not quite, 4 tons, judging from thedifficulty experienced by me some few years agoat Quelimane in getting one hoisted by the steam-
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THE HIPPOPOTAMUS 77 winch of a large Norwegian steamer on to thevessels deck. They are essentially amphibious, and indifferentas to whether the water they inhabit be fresh orbrackish or salt. I have seen them at the en-trance to the Chinde River, at a point which ispractically on the seacoast, and I am informedthat they may still be observed at the mouths ofsome of the smaller streams which discharge intothe Indian Ocean between that point and Queli-mane, as also in those to the northward. It hasbeen said by some writers that the specific gravityof these animals is such that they are therebyenabled to run along the bed of a river withgreat speed. With this statement, however, Ido not agree. I have watched them from aposition high over the clear waters of the ShireRiver above the Murchison Falls on several oc-casions, and I am satisfied that their usual methodof progression under water is by swimming.This they can undoubtedly do at a great rate;moreover, as I have observed in the Macuz

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