178 CLIMATE AND HABITS OF THE HIPPOrOTAMUS. CHAr. x. 



Cuvier in 1825. Imbedded in the same bone breccia, and 

 enveloped with red earth like the mammahan remains, were 

 detected shells of the 3Iytilus edulis before mentioned, imply- 

 ing- 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 woi*ks 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 

 potter}', even if we simply confine our estimate to the up- 

 heaval 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 jjeriod during which 

 the upward movement was going on; and we can form at 

 present no conjecture as to the probable era of its commence- 

 ment or termination. 



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. Eevolutions 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 Hippopotanms. 



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 



