The hippopotamus has no horns, its feet and teeth being the only weapons with which nature has provided it; its legs are thick, fleshy, and of a tolerable size; the foot is cleft like that of oxen; but the pasterns or knees are too weak to support the weight of the body: nature, however, has provided against this defect by supplying the fetlock with two little horny substances, which tend to support the animal while walking; it thus leaves upon the ground, at every step, the impression of the four horns, which must have made the ancients think that its claws were similar to those of the crocodile, as they have depicted it to us. The hippopotamus walks tolerably quick when it is pressed, and if it find a level and rather hard soil; but it can never overtake a horse, nor even a light-made man, as are all the Negroes who hunt it for amusement. The skin of the river-horse is uncommonly hard, particularly that which covers the neck, the back, the hind part of the thighs, and the rump, insomuch that balls only slip along it, and arrows recoil. It is, however, much thinner, and consequently more easy to perforate, under the belly and between the thighs; in these parts, therefore, the hunters attempt to wound it. The river-horse is amphibious: it is frequently seen in the sea; but we know that it does not proceed far from the coast or fresh water, as it requires for its existence to be near meadows and cultivated lands. It has been observed to walk much faster in the water than on land, as the former supports it, and assists the progress of its heavy body; nevertheless, it cannot stay in the fluid for a length of time, or as long as it can remain on land. The time which it has been ascertained to keep under water, is about half or three quarters of an hour; after which it is obliged to come to land for the purpose of free respiration. It sleeps ashore amongst the rushes and thickets with which the banks of the river are covered; and in such parts the females drop their young, and give them suck. As soon as they see any object or hear the least noise, they throw themselves into the water, and the young ones follow the dam. The female generally bears four at a time, and breeds once a year; so that the number of these animals in the Bissagos and the neighbouring rivers, is not astonishing.