LARGE FOSSIL HIPPOPOTAMUS. 405 



sandy gravel from three to eight feet, were found, " al- 

 ways within two feet of the third stratum, the teeth and 

 bones of the Hippopotamus, the teeth and bones of the 

 Elephant, the horns, bones, and teeth of several species 

 of Deer and Ox, and the shells of river fish. The remains 

 of Hippopotami are so extremely abundant, that, in turn- 

 ing over an area of one hundred and twenty yards in the 

 present season," (1812) " parts of six tusks have been 

 found of this animal." (Op. cit. p. 135.) Mr. Trimmer 

 adds, that " the gravel-stones in this stratum do not ap- 

 pear to have been rounded in the usual way by attrition, 

 and that the bones must have been deposited after the 

 flesh was off, because in no instance have two bones been 

 found together which were joined in the living animal ; 

 and further, that the bones are not in the least worn, 

 as must have been the case had they been exposed to the 

 wash of a sea-beach." (Ib. p. 136.) 



When the flesh and ligaments of a dead Hippopotamus, 

 decomposing in an African river, have been dissolved and 

 washed from its bones, these will become detached from 

 one another, and may be separately imbedded in the sedi- 

 mentary deposits at the bottom without becoming much 

 waterworn in their course previous to entombment. Al- 

 though, therefore, the bones of the Brentford Hippopo- 

 tamus were imbedded after the flesh was off, the indi- 

 vidual to which they belonged might not have been trans- 

 ported from any great distance, the phenomena being 

 perfectly in accordance with the fact that the animal had 

 lived and died in the stream with the fresh-water mollusks, 

 the shells of which characterize the sedimentary deposit in 

 which its bones were subsequently buried. All the well- 

 observed phenomena attending the discovery of Hippo- 

 potamic remains have concurred in establishing the truth 



