On some Quadrupeds supposed to be extinct. 363 



the truth, by those references of Mr. Bell and Sherefeddin to 

 countries not very distant. 



The British king Cuneboline had also the unicorn on his 

 coins, and the figure of the animal is very similar to the above 

 description *. The writer is, therefore, of opinion that these 

 now described are the real oryx mentioned by Aristotle, Pliny, 

 and other ancient authors f . 



Hippopotamus. 



The remains of this beast have been found in England at 

 the residences of the Romans, viz., near London, Colchester, 

 and York ; and not any in Ireland or Scotland. They have 

 also been found in Italy mixed with great numbers of the 

 bones of other beasts known to have been exhibited by the 

 Romans. This animal is not known to inhabit any country 

 but Africa. Two were caught near Damietta, a.d. 1600. 

 They are known to inhabit Abyssinia, Bornou, the Cape of 

 Good Hope, Senegal, and they were met with in great abund- 

 ance by the two vessels, the Sion, of 200 tons, and St. John, 

 of 50 tons, which sailed above nine hundred miles up the river 

 Gambia, a.d. 1620, employed by Sir Wm. St. John J. The 

 inference is, that they inhabit the whole of that vast continent, 

 and that it is most probable the number of species is as great 

 as that of elephants ; and that the fossil kinds not having been 

 brought from the same country as the living individuals with 

 which they have been compared, has induced naturalists to 

 suppose them extinct. An elaborately grand Roman pave- 



• Wars and Sports, p. 354. 



t See Cuvier's Theory of the Earth, p. 80. Wars and Sports, p. 335. 

 With regard to the unicorn, Camper has remarked, that •• if this animal 

 was ruminant and cloven-footed, it is certain that its frontal bone must 

 have been divided longitudinally into two, and that it could not possibly 

 have had a horn placed upon the suture." This remark by Camper, 

 when we consider how nature adapts every thing to its purposes, cannot 

 stand as a real objection to the existence of the oryx. The most eminent 

 naturalists have been wrong in some of their conjectures. John Hunter 

 pronounced the mastodon to be a carnivorous beast. Buffon, after 

 frequently considering the bones of the mammoth, conceived them to 

 belong to a beast six times larger than the biggest elephant ; and Mul- 

 ler was of opinion that it must have been 105 feet in height, and 133 in 

 length ! So little capable is any human being to judge what nature 

 does, or can do I 



X See Relation of Master Wm. Jobson in Purchas, vol, ii„ p. 921. 



