AND LOWER EGYPT. 179 



inhabitants of the Said, where formerly these ani- 

 mals were most commonly founds know as little 

 of the denomination of River Horse as of the ani- 

 mal himself to which that title is given ; they 

 seem even to retain no longer an idea of it Doc- 

 tor Shaw has also ascertained the same fact with 

 respect to the people of Lower -Egypt *. 



It is surprising that the hippopotamus should 

 have so far deserted Egypt as to be at present 

 scarcely known there. This emigration, ahxiost 

 sudden, could not have been occasioned either by 

 an increase of inhabitants, or by their more 

 active industry ^ ; for no one is ignorant that this 

 country was in former ages much more nume- 

 rously peopled and infinitely better cultivated 

 than it is in modern times. 



In reflecting on the disappearance of the hippo- 

 potamus from that part of the Nile which waters 

 Egypt, I only perceive the natural effect of the use 

 of fire-arms, now generally prevalent in this coun- 

 try, for a certain number of years past, although 

 these arms, or at least cannon, were not as yet very 



* Travels, French translation. 



f Biiffon (in his natural history of the lion) has proved, 

 that the lion species is reduced to the tenth part of what it used 

 to be, occasioned, he says, by the increase of the human race. 



N 2 ■ fiumerous 



