be,
were my legs answerable to my horns!'

"In the midst of this vain talk, the stag was alarmed by the cry of a
pack of hounds. He immediately bounded over the ground, and left his
pursuers so far behind that he might have escaped; but going into a
thick wood, his horns were entangled in the branches of the trees, where
he was held till the hounds came up, and tore him in pieces.

"In his last moments he thus exclaimed: 'How ill do we judge of our own
true advantages! The legs which I despised would have borne me away in
safety, had not my favorite antlers brought me to ruin.'"

The Hippopotamus.

Every traveler, who has seen the hippopotamus in his native haunts, and
who has attempted to give a description of the animal, represents him as
exceedingly formidable, when he is irritated, and when he can get a
chance to fight his battle in the water. On land, he is unwieldy and
awkward; so that, when he is pursued by an enemy, he usually takes to
his favorite element. There he plunges in head foremost, and sinks to
the bottom, where it is said he finds no difficulty in moving with the
same pace as when upon land, in the open air. He cannot, however,
continue under water for any great length of time. He is obliged to rise
to the surface, to take breath. Severe battles sometimes take place
between the males, and they make sad havoc before they get through.

[Illustration: THE HIPPOPOTAMUS.]

Great masses of flesh, torn out by their terrible jaws, mark the spot
where one of these encounters has occurred. It not unfrequently happens
that one or even both perish on the spot. On the banks of the Nile,
whole fields of grain and sugar cane are sometimes destroyed by these
animals.

Clapperton, the enterprising traveler, informs us that, when on a
warlike expedition, he had convincing evidence that the hippopotamus is
fond of music. "As the expedition passed along the banks of the lake at
sunrise," says he, "these uncouth and stupendous animals followed the
sound of the drums the whole length of the water, sometimes approaching
so close to the shore, that the spray they spouted from their mouths
reached the people, who were passing along the banks. I counted fifteen,
at one time, sporting on the surface of the water."

The following account of hunting the hippopotamus is given by Dr. Edward
Russell: "One of the animals we killed was of an enormous size. We
fought with him for four good hours by night, and came very