Brehm once surprised such a party huddled together on the margin of a cliff. The first shot that echoed through the valley roused the greatest commotion and displeasure, and the monkeys howled and bellowed in chorus. Then they began to move with astonishing activity and surefootedness. Two more shots thundered through the valley, doing no damage but increasing their panic and fury. At every fresh shot they halted a moment, beat their paws against the rocks and yelled abuse at their disturbers. The front of the cliff seemed in some places to be vertical, but the baboons climbed about everywhere. At the next bend of the road the whole troop came down into the valley, intending to continue their flight among the rocks on the opposite side. Two sporting dogs in Brehm's caravan flew off like arrows after the troop of baboons, but before they could come up with it, the old baboons halted, turned round and presented such a terrible front to the dogs that these quickly turned back. When the dogs were hounded on to the baboons a second time, most of the latter were already safe among the rocks, only a few remaining in the valley, among them a small young one. Frightened at the onslaught of the dogs, the little creature fled shrieking up a boulder, while the dogs stood round its base. Brehm wished to catch the young one alive, but just then an old male came calmly to the boulder, taking no heed of the danger. He turned his fierce eyes on the dogs, controlling them with his gaze, jumped up on to the block, whispered some calming sound into the ear of the young one, and set out on his return with his protege. The dogs were so cowed that they never attacked, and both the young baboon and his rescuer were able to retire unmolested to their friends. THE HIPPOPOTAMUS In the lakes and rivers of all central Africa lives the large, clumsy, and ugly hippopotamus. In former times it occurred also in Lower Egypt, where it was called the river hog, but at the present day it is necessary to go a good distance south of Nubia in order to find it. In many rivers it migrates with the seasons. It descends the river as this falls in the dry season, and moves up again when the bed is filled by rain. The body of the hippopotamus is round and clumsy, and is supported by four short shapeless legs with four hoofed toes on each foot. The singular head is nearly quadrangular, the eyes and ears are small, the snout enormously broad and the nostrils wide (Plate XXIX.). The hairless hide, three-quarters of an inch thick, changes from grey to dark brown and dirty red according as it is dry or wet. The animal is thirteen feet long, without the small short tail, and weighs as much as thirty full-grown men.