HIPPOPOTAMUa 



HIPPOPOTAMUa 



100 



a* them with hi. own hand. Helionbalus 

 bo eilAMed Hippopotami. Thsee demand 



showed fir. oo one occasion, and killed some 

 .. and the third Oordian 

 to have) produced 



to Varoellintu AmmUnu. (book xi> !. 

 oUtrra, the nee of Hippopotami had disappeared from Egypt 



je the Urn* of UM emperor Julian. Favourable circumstances 



however mast have operated to rwtore it, M we collect from the 

 . of Zsrenfhi above alluded to and othera. That the animal 

 w*> Mend. ID some put* at least, appear* from Herodotui (book it. 

 "Those which are found in the district of Papremis are 

 .'but in other part* of Egypt they are not considered in the 

 mini ("Travels in Upper and Lower Egypt'), who 

 as thi* passage, and aUo one from Pauuniu (book ir. 33), goes 

 i that these animak 



. i laid waste whole countries by ravage* 



a* fearful a* their sia* was enormous, and that they were equally 

 formidable to nun with UM crocodile. From the terror which they 

 Inspired, they were, be !!, generally looked upon a* the symbol 

 of Typhoo, that giant who had apread death and destruction among 

 the dHJe> which were worshipped in that quarter; they were, be 

 adda, at count the emblem of mischance and of cruelty, anil the 

 particular wormhip of them at Papremu must have been practised 

 aMy with the riew of appealing or averting their rage. 



We have mentjoned that with few exceptions, if out with one only, 



the representation* of the ancient artists have been found faithful to 

 tore when compared with the di-ocriptioni of ancient naturalists 

 ad author*. The exception u the figure copied by Hamiltou 

 (' .Egyptiaoa,' pL xxii.). from one of the cave* of Bern-Hassan, in which 

 the fert are rauimeuted a* cloven, and the lower tusks are so enonimu* 

 a* to reader it impoarible that they should be covered by the HIM, 

 whereat the largely developed muzzle and iU ooneequent concealment 

 of the iuk are portrayed upon moat of the ancient figures and 

 We do not consider the figure found by Belzoni as an 



on, because, a* the author of the auiiwing book on Egyptian 

 Antiquities obeerves, the deaLmer sometime* placed on one animal a 

 part taken from another, and that mentioned by liel/oni was a calf 

 with the heed of a Hippopotamus. Though tho details of the teeth 

 and feet are not correct in the figure on the plinth of the xtntue of 

 the Nik formerly in the Vatican, and afterwards taken to the French 

 Miieeiiiii, ita general contour U good ; and the animal occurs in other 

 sculptures and in mosaics very characteristically represented. Some 

 of the*% that of the Vatican above mentioned, fur instance, may 

 have given rie to the story of the enmity borne towards the croco- 

 dile by the Hippopotamus, which in that sculpture holds a crocodile 

 ia ita month. On medals and coins of the Roman emperors tho 

 Hippopotamus often appears, sometimes with the crocodile, sometimes 

 without. TboM of the emperors Trajan, Hadrian, and Philip, or 



of Mareja Otacilia Seven, Philip's wife, will occur to some of 



: : : 



.- 



Vincent de Baauvaia, Alberto* Magnus, James of Vitry, and all more 

 or leas fabulous ; but AbdalbUif give* a very good account of the 

 animal Belon and (Julius however seem to have been the first 

 among the modem* who actually saw, or at least who have recorded 

 that they saw the animal alive. They both saw it at Constantinople, 

 and perhaps they saw the same. Sonnini seems to doubt whether 

 the animal which Belon law was a hippopotami!* (' Travels in Upper 

 and Lower Egypt,' voL iil), and quotes Matthiolus, who speaks very 

 Itjhtinfly oT Belon; but a penual of that accurate observer's 

 Mooont will, we think, satiafy the moat scrupulous that he saw a 

 living Hippopotamu* ; he even allude* to the differences between the 

 cure* of that animal on ancient work* of art and the specimen 

 which he had before hi* eye*, and rectifies the error in the figure on 

 the plinth of the statue of the Nile, which ha* five toe* instead of 

 four. Of the teeth indeed he only remarks that they approach to 

 those of a hone. Oeener doe* little but quote Belon ; and without 

 itiUlnlm the reader with the descriptions of Zerenghi. who U above 

 alluded to, which wve good, or the compilation of Aldrovandus, 

 who did not use tho figure of Zerengu, but another lent U. him from 

 Pado. (Cuvier think*, by Pronper Alpinua). or the good description 

 and mor* accurate representation given by Fabiua Column*, we come 

 to Lodolph, who, in hi. Hi*ory of Kthfopia,' give, an entire figure 

 on a large scale. Thi* i* the best which had been hitherto published : 

 hot UM teeth are exaggerated, and a great deal too much exposed, 

 ad the ear* ar. rather Ting. Below this I* a figure of the sea-hone! 

 potting up hi* head above the water; thence called the river-horse 

 by the Greeks*." The head and neck alone are visible; but the 



*nd exposure of tho teeth are continued, and tho 

 <r lengthening the nock, bead, and ear* ha* given a much 

 more horwUk* character to the figure. Thevenot, in hi* ' Voyage to 

 the Levant,' very fairly describe, an individual killed in hi* time 

 (1M) near Oirg*n, and taken to Cairo. 

 .... 



of these author* is 1039, but in 1735 the 



The 



rt lhev ar. aot Wld Mmd bv lite net o M nrplUu. 

 f Mten * fra art UMM : the .nlm.l U roar.footod, Mnilotnl, with 

 i tia. Itaet of u e*. s fel aov, . hw- MOM, prominrnt te*ih, ud ihc 

 W VOTS* ef hoTM. ball* tt Is** l*ff*s to mataMox. TheUini. 

 M tkkk tkal wkm drM tk. >WU of dsrU at* Bade of It." 



work of Prosper Alpinus was pubUshed, and obscured the subject 

 again by giving a representation of two stuffed skins, the one of a 

 large female animal, and the other of her foetui, which he had seen 

 in the bouse of the Pasha of Cairo. These were the skins of two 

 Hippopotami, but the skulls had been withdrawn, and the absci 

 tho projecting teeth led Prosper to the conclusion that he had at last 

 found in thin, which he took for a distinct creature, the animal 

 represented by the ancient artiste, forgetting, or more probably nut 

 knowing, that when the Hippopotami of the present day keep their 

 mouths closed no tooth is visible. 



\\ need not detain the reader with a reference to the figures and 

 descriptions given by other zoologists, as Grew, A. Jussieu, Haul 

 Pallas, BufTon, He., but shall come at ouoe to LiuuteuR, and this will 

 bring us to the question of the geographical distribution of the 

 genus, and of the number of species. 



Liniuciu, in his last edition of his ' Systema Naturae,' gives only 

 one species, Hippopotatnut amphibita, and places its habitat "in Nilo 

 et Bumbolo Africa), et ad ostia fluviorum 



Africa appears to be the only quarter of the globe in which this 

 form exists ; and though Oneaicrituu (Arrian, ' Indie.,' c. 6) places the 

 Hippopotamus in the Indus, Strabo (690, 707, Casaub.) seems to 

 prefer the testimony of ArUtobulus in contradiction of the fur 

 Pausanias (iv. 34) agrees with Strabo. Cuvier, who has collected 

 almost all the learning on this subject, well observes that no traveller 

 of credit has reported that it has been found on the continent of 

 Iiulin. He remarks that Button gave no credence to the testimony 

 of Michael Boyn, who states China to be one of the localities; he 

 observes that it is nearly without authority tli it LinmiMis supposes 

 the animal to occur at the mouths of the rivers of Asia, ui< ! 

 opinion that M. Faujas appears to be well authorised iu denying t lut 

 it is to be found on the continent of India. 



Handen includes the Hippopotamus among the animals of the 

 islands of Sumatra and Java; but Cuvier (' Ossemens Fi>.-- 

 enters into an interesting discussion, well worthy of the perusal of 

 the reader, to show that Marsdeu is mistaken ; and in addition 

 arguments, he brings forward the fact that Messrs. Diard and 

 Duvaucel, who travelled over a considerable part of Java and Sumatra 

 in tliffeiviit directions, could not find a Hippopotamus, though they 

 succeeded in obtaining two species of Rhinoceros and a Tapir. Upon 

 the whole evidence at present known, it seems to be estalili^lu-l tliut 

 the geographical distribution of this pachydermatous form is confined 

 to the great rivers and lakes of Africa. 



We now come to the question of how many species of Hippo- 

 potamus at present exist. 



M. DesmouUns ('Journal de Physiologic,' &c., par F. Mageudie, 

 tome v.) gives osteological reasons, drawn principally from the <Uft.-r- 

 ences in the skull, for distinguishing at least two species of Hippo- 

 potamus. And upon the whole it must be allowed that he a) 

 to be borne out in his position that the distinctions between the two 

 species, one of which he designates as the Hippopotamus of the Cape 

 (U. Capemit), and the other as the Hippopotamus of Senegal (//. 

 Senegal*****), ore as strong as those on which Cuvier founded his 

 specific separation of the Fossil Hippopotamus from that of the 

 Cape. H. Desmouliiw is further of opinion that it is not impossible 

 that the Hippopotamus of the Nile differs specifically from the other 

 two. The external differences do not appear to be considerable, if 

 any. M. Desmoulins indeed remarks, that of 40 Hippopotami 

 by M. Caillaud in the Upper Nile, two or three were bluish-block, all 

 the others reddish ; and M. Desmoulins even hints that there may be 

 two species in that river. The latter odds that of the two Hippo- 

 potami of the Cape possessed by the Paris Museum, one is bluck, 

 the other reddish ; but he considers that the numerical disproportion 

 d between the individuals of the two colours in the Nile can 

 hardly admit of a sexual solution. We have examined several skulls 

 "f Hippopotami, and some of them certainly prewnt many striking 

 differences ; but it should be remembered that safe inferences as to 

 specific distinction can only ,1m drawn from a very extensive exami- 

 nation of skeletons, combined with unquestionable data as to the 

 locality, age, and sex of the subjects examined. 



With regard to the supposed two Nilotic species, there is reason 

 for considerable doubt; nor is much weight to be attached to the 

 alleged difference of colour. The animal in the water and out of it 

 present* a very different appearance ; and, to say nothing of the 

 possibility of a difference in the cose of sex, there is every probability 

 that some change in the colour may take place as the animal advances 

 in age. We have seen the remark of Le Vaillant as to the dill* 

 of colour when tho skin is dry, when it is only moist, and when the 

 animal in full life is walking at tho bottom of the river. 



It need hardly be observed that the Homans must have derived 

 their Hipp<ipot:imi from Northern Africa; and as we have given 

 Sparrmann's description, among others, of the noise mode by the 

 KMiithiTii animnl, we may be excused perhaps for remarking that 

 Iturckhardt (' Travel* in Nubia') describes the voice of the 1 .' 

 potamus as a harsh and heavy sound, like the creaking or groaning of 

 a large wooden door. Thin noise, he says, is made when the animal 

 raises its huge head out of the wntcr and when he retires into it again. 

 We may also add, with regard to the alleged disappearance of the 

 Hip|H>potamus from Lower Egypt, that, as Cuvior remarks, the French 



