J78 CLIMATE AND HABITS OP THE HIPPOPOTAMUS. CHAP. x. 



Embedded in the same bone breccia, and enveloped with red 

 earth like the mammalian remains, were detected shells of 

 the Mytilus edulis before mentioned, implying that the 

 marine formation containing shells and pottery had been 

 already upheaved and exposed to denudation before the 

 remains of quadrupeds were washed into these rents and 

 included in the red earth. In the vegetable soil covering the 

 upraised marine stratum, with the older works of art, frag 

 ments of Eoman pottery occur. 



If we assume the average rate of upheaval to have been, as 

 before hinted, p. 58, two and a half feet in a century, 300 feet 

 would give an antiquity of 12,000 years to the Cagliari pot 

 tery, even if we simply confine our estimate to the upheaval 

 above the sea-level, without allowing for the original depth of 

 water in which the mollusca lived. Even then our calculation 

 would merely embrace the period during which the upward 

 movement was going on ; and we can form at present no con- 

 jecture as to the probable era of its commencement or termi 

 nation. 



I learn from Capt. Spratt, E.N., that the island of Crete 

 or Candia, about 135 miles in length, has been raised at its 

 western extremity about twenty-five feet ; so that ancient ports 

 are now high and dry above the sea, while at its eastern end it 

 has sunk so much that the ruins of old towns are seen under 

 water. Revolutions like these in the physical geography of the 

 countries bordering the Mediterranean, may well help us to 

 understand the phenomena of the Palermo caves, and the 

 presence in Sicily of African species of mammalia. 



Climate and Habits of the Hippopotamus. 



As I have alluded more than once in this chapter (pp. 172, 



175) to the occurrence of the remains of the hippopotamus 



in places where there are now no rivers, not even a rill of 



water, and as other bones of the same genus have been met 



