PYGMY HIPPOPOTAMUS.

Colonist, Volume LIV, Issue 13507, 29 August 1912, Page 7

PYGMY HIPPOPOTAMUS.

Renter's Agency learns, that Major IT Schomburgk, the well-known German big- game hunter, has arrived from Liberia, haying-succeeded in bringing to Europe fivo living specimens of a pygmy hippopotamus. A.. s far back ais 1864 Dr Morton, a. British colonial surgeon, discovered a skull of an unknown animal, .which ■ wa s named Choeropsis liborien-f.is. Since then many expeditions have been organised in search of the mysterious animal, but hitherto without success. In conversation with Renter's representative, Major Schombnrgk gave some .account of his expedition. "During my many years of African travel," Major Schombtlrgk said, "I havo never had harder experiences. For instance, for a whole week I was wading rivers, frequently neckdeep. ' I dug together 200 pits to trap the animals, and placing these was very I difficult, as tho pygmy hippo, unlike hi s big .cousin, has no regular tracks, At last I killed one which I found: concealed under the bank of a. stream containing barely three- inches of water. After this my bad luck vanished,, and I caught three in succession in my pits, and afterwards two more. I now "had to cut tracks through tfoe> virgin forest for five days , to my centre at Macca, where I wanted to collect WJ $niraajp and then trausport them 'alive io the coast, a further four days. For this I employed 200 carriers. The animal is in appearance not unlike an American mountain tapir. A full-grown animal weighs 4001b, and is about the size of a large pig. It has very powerful tusks like the- ordinary hippo. It i-s pitch black in colour, and more graceful in shape- than the hippo. In its wild -state- it is extremely savage, and is much feared by the natives. I found it, however very easy to tame. Of the five specimens brought alive to Europe, two have been purchased by the American Zoological Society, and the others are in Germany."