LARGE FOSSIL HIPPOPOTAMUS. 405 
sandy gravel from three to eight feet, were: found, “ al- 
ways within two feet of the third stratum, the teeth and 
bones of the Hippopotamus, the teeth and bones of the 
Elephant, the horns, bones, and teeth of several species 
of Deer and Ox, and the shells of river fish. The remains 
of Hippopotami are so extremely abundant, that, in turn- 
ing over an area of one hundred and twenty yards in the 
present season,” (1812) “parts of six tusks have been 
found of this animal.” (Op. cit. p. 135.) Mr. Trimmer 
adds, that ‘‘ the gravel-stones in this stratum do not ap- 
pear to have been rounded in the usual way by attrition, 
and that the bones must have been deposited after the 
flesh was off, because in no instance have two bones been 
found together which were joined in the living animal ; 
and further, that the bones are not in the least worn, 
as must have been the case had they been exposed to the 
wash of a sea-beach.” (Ib. p. 156.) 
When the flesh and ligaments of a dead Hippopotamus, 
decomposing in an African river, have been dissolved and 
washed from its bones, these will become detached from 
one another, and may be separately imbedded in the sedi- 
mentary deposits at the bottom without becoming much 
waterworn in their course previous to entombment. Al- 
though, therefore, the bones of the Brentford Hippopo- 
tamus were imbedded after the flesh was off, the indi- 
vidual to which they belonged might not have been trans- 
ported from any great distance, the phenomena being 
perfectly in accordance with the fact that the animal had 
lived and died in the stream with the fresh-water mollusks, 
the shells of which characterize the sedimentary deposit in 
which its bones were subsequently buried. All the well- 
observed phenomena attending the discovery of Hippo- 
potamic remains haye concurred in establishing the truth 
