136 Miscellaneous. 



ON A SPECIES OF HIPPOPOTAMUS FROM SIERRA LEONE. 



To Richard Taylor, Esq. 



British Museum, loth July, 1846. 

 My dear Sir, — Dr. Morton described a short time ago a second 

 species of Hippopotamus from Liberia, which proves to be most di- 

 stinct, and is not larger than a calf ; by the inclosed note sent me by 

 my friend Colonel Thompson (who, during his governorship of Sierra 

 Leone, paid much attention to natural history, and amongst other 

 things prepared the skeleton of the adult Chimpanzee described by 

 Mr. Owen), it appears that a species about the same size is found 

 in Sierra Leone ; at any rate the Sierra Leone animal would be a 

 most interesting addition to our collections. The Wolverine is cer- 

 tainly the Rattel, and the Lemur the Galago. 



Yours very truly, 



J. E. Gray. 

 To J. E. Gray, Esq. 



Blackheath, 12th July, 1846. 

 My dear Sir, — In the year 1808 or 1809, being then Governor 

 of Sierra Leone, I heard of the killing of an animal, which, my im- 

 pression at the time and ever since was, must have been of the Hip- 

 popotamus or Tapir class. It was killed by the Maroons in a stream 

 like a small trout-stream, called the Hog-brook (from the presence 

 of wild hogs), five or six miles inland from Freetown, and now I 

 believe the site of Wilberforce. 



I was shown the place to which it retreated and in which it was 

 killed ; being precisely such a deep hole as is found every now and 

 then in a trout- stream where the water circles round. The place 

 was shown me by Capt. Charles Schaw of the Maroons, a man of 

 excellent character and credit, in whom I should place the most im- 

 plicit reliance, and who was present at the hunt. He said it was of 

 the size of a small cow (cows are very small at Sierra Leone, and 

 therefore this may be set down as marking the size of one of the 

 smallest cows of the Highland breed) ; that its skin had only a hair 

 on it here and there, and (I think he added) the skin was black ; and 

 that it had " a mouth full of ivory," by which I clearly understood 

 him to mean that it had tusks or projecting teeth. 



On recollection I think it was from Mr. Ludlam, my predecessor, 

 that I heard of the killing of the animal, and was afterwards taken 

 to the spot in consequence of my inquiries. 



Of curious animals of which I have myself had specimens at Sierra 

 Leone, I will mention the Chimpanzee ; Touraco (called by the colo- 

 nists the Mountain Peacock), Cerastes (of which I have seen three 

 specimens) ; an animal which I suspected to be of the class of the 

 Wolverine (confirmed by the report of the natives of the country 

 that it threw itself on animals from a tree), remarkable for being di- 

 vided into black and white by a horizontal line, so that it looked like 

 a creature that had been in the mud (the specimens I saw were 

 about a foot high, but the natives stated that it grew to the size of a 

 goat) ; and a very beautiful small animal which I suspect to be of 



