beast springs toward them, its enormous jaws extended, and often
succeeds in crushing the frail canoe to splinters. The hunters, if
thrown in the water, immediately dive--as the beast looks for them on
the surface--and make for the shore. Their prey is soon secured, for the
well-aimed harpoon has done its work, and the hippopotamus is soon
forced to succumb. Should it be under water, its whereabouts is
indicated by a float on the end of the long harpoon rope, and it is
easily dragged ashore.

Travellers on the Nile are often placed in great peril by the attacks of
these beasts, which although said to be inoffensive when not molested,
are so easily enraged that the noise of a passing boat excites them to
terrible fury. Baker relates being roused one clear moonlight night by a
hoarse wild snorting, which he at once recognized as the voice of a
furious hippopotamus. He rushed on deck, and discovered a large specimen
of this beast charging on the boat with indescribable rage. The small
boats towed astern were crunched to pieces in a moment, and so rapid
were the movements of this animal, as it roared and plunged in a cloud
of foam and wave, that it was next to impossible to take aim at the
small vulnerable spot on its head. At length, however, it appeared to be
wounded, and retired to the high reeds along the shore. But it soon
returned, snorting and blowing more furiously than ever, and continued
its attack until its head was fairly riddled with bullets, and it rolled
over and over, dead at last.

Young hippopotami have been captured and placed in zoological gardens,
but as they become old they grow savage, and are very hard to manage.
Some fine specimens were formerly in the Jardin des Plantes at Paris.
They ate all kinds of vegetables and grass, and slept nearly all day,
generally lying half in and half out of the big water tank provided for
them.

The hippopotamus is supposed by many to be identical with the behemoth
of Scripture, which is described as a beast "that lieth under the shady
trees, in the covert of the reed and fens." It is also spoken of as one
that "eateth grass as an ox," and that "drinketh up a river," and the
"willows of the brook compass him about."

THE CAT'S-MEAT MAN.

[Illustration: PREPARING CAT'S MEAT IN FULTON MARKET.]

In one corner of Fulton Market in New York city is the snug little stall
of the cat's-meat man. He is a jolly, merry-looking fellow, as you may
see by his pictur