On one of the upper branches of the Congo river lived an ancient and aristocratic family of hippopotamuses, which boasted a pedigree dating back beyond thedays of Noah-beyond the existence of mankind-far into the dim ages when the world was new. They had always lived upon the banks of this same river, so thatevery curve and sweep of its waters, every pit and shallow of its bed, every rock and stump and wallow upon its bank was as familiar to them as their ownmothers. And they are living there yet, I suppose.