I20 NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS 



The best known region, however, is the country- 

 adjacent to the banks of the St. Paul's River, a 

 stream which rises in the mountains of Guinea, 

 and flowing through Liberia empties itself into 

 the Atlantic north of Cape Messurado. In 1843 

 H. liberiensis occurred in a tract of land extending 

 from the banks of this river to a distance of three 

 miles from the water, and was quite abundant one 

 hundred and fifty miles from the coast : it probably 

 still occurs in that reo"ion. 



Dr. Morton in his paper expressed the hope 

 that considering the small size of the pigmy hip- 

 popotamus it might be found an easy task to 

 capture living examples for zoological gardens : 

 but unfortunately, like many other West African 

 mammals, this fourfooted dwarf yet remains a 

 desideratum in the menageries of Europe and 

 America, the only example ever sent over alive 

 being the calf which was received at the Dublin 

 Zoological Gardens, in 1873.-^ This example was 

 obtained on the Little Scarcies River, and was 

 presented to Mr. Pope Hennessey by the negroes 

 who captured it. He sent the animal home : on 

 its arrival in Liverpool, several photographs were 

 taken of it, and these are extremely valuable, 

 being the only sun-pictures of a living pigmy 

 hippopotamus that have yet been taken. The 



1 It has been stated in a recent work on natural history that no 

 living example of the pigmy hippopotamus has ever been brought to 

 Europe ; such, however, is not the case. 



