200 A GIGANTIC LAND-TORTOISE.

some two or three hours if killed ; but if only wounded, or missed, he will frequently select so well-concealed a spot for his necessary re-appearance as to baffle his pursuers. The lungs of the hippopotamus are so constructed as to enable him to remain below the surface of the water for a period of from six to ten consecutive minutes, though when undisturbed they delight in remaining with their heads entirely above water, often for a considerable length of time ; but when molested, they take care to show no more than the apertures of the nostrils, and their eyes, and that only for a few seconds, as they quickly fill their lungs with a fresh supply of oxygen, and sink again.

The vicinity of our camp was the daily resort of numerous marabou-storks, several of which we shot for the sake of their feathers. Any one, who had seen these birds in the numbers in which they occur in these parts of Africa, would fully appreciate the justice and accuracy of Mr. H. Stracey Mark's admirable picture entitled In Convocation," which attracted so much attention at the Royal Academy two or three years ago.

We purchased from some Arabs, for a trifling sum, a gigantic land-tortoise, which we had intended to have presented to the Zoological Society of London ; but the fates were against us, for a journey on camel-back proved more than his constitution could bear. He weighed almost as much as a man could lift.

At night we fastened him with a strong chain to a heavy provision-box, which he would frequently drag several yards in his endeavours to escape. We never could perceive that he ate or drank any thing, although we tried him with every thing which we thought likely to tempt his palate. Even under these adverse circumstances, he, nevertheless, lived for some weeks, and gave no signs of failing strength, until one day we found him