RHINOCEROS TICHORHINUS. 



327 



an Hippopotamus, or Equus fluvialis, that is, a River- 

 horse ; for a Sea-horse, as commonly understood and ex- 

 hibited, is a fictitious thing. Yet Pliny makes Hippopo- 

 tamum (' mari, terrse, amni cornmunem, 1 ) to belong to sea, 

 land, and rivers. But what are the differences and proper- 

 ties of each kind, I leave others to inquire. The earth, 

 or mould about them, and in which they all lay, being like 

 a sea-earth or fulling earth has not a stone in it, unless you 

 dig three feet deeper, and then it rises a perfect gravel. 11 



This last passage gives a more exact knowledge of the 

 matrix of the fossils than is usually found in analogous 

 notices : we readily recognise in it the post-pliocene brick- 

 earth and drift which have since yielded, especially in the 

 counties of Kent, Surrey, and Essex, so rich a harvest of 

 the remains of great extinct Pachyderms. 



" So have you the story, an account, if you please, of 

 what was found, where, when, and upon what occasion. 

 For more public satisfaction, and to facilitate the disco- 

 very ; at least to help such as are minded to employ their 

 skill in guessing and judging of the creature, whose remains 

 these are, what it was for kind ; we have by and with 

 the help of an able limner, adventured on a scheme or 

 figure of several of the teeth and bones, with their re- 

 spective dimensions of breadth, length, and thickness. 11 



" No man, we conceive, not willing to be censured of 

 rashness, will be very forward to divine, much less to 

 define or determine what the creature was ; and, doubt- 

 less, dubious enough it is, whether of the twain, the sea, 

 or the land, may more rightly lay claim unto it. 11 



Mr. Somner having, nevertheless, " taken a large time 

 of consideration of all particulars and circumstances fit 

 to be duly and deliberately weighed and observed in 

 the case," adventures to conjecture it to be " some sea-bred 



