412 HIPPOPOTAMUS. 



the formation containing the Mammalian fossils were 

 collected and examined by him : of those shells he has 

 determined twenty-four species, five terrestrial, and nine- 

 teen fresh- water ; of which latter, there appear to be three 

 extinct species. All the others are existing and indigenous 

 to Britain. In reference to this discovery, Mr. Lyell re- 

 marks : " The Hippopotamus is now only met with in 

 rivers where the temperature of the water is warm and 

 nearly uniform ; but the great fossil species of the same 

 genus (H. major, Cuv.) certainly inhabited England when 

 the testacea of our country were nearly the same as those 

 now existing, and when the climate cannot be supposed to 

 have been very hot."* 



We have no evidence that the great fossil Hippopotamus 

 extended so far north as the Mammoth and tichorhine 

 Rhinoceros, with which it is commonly found associated in 

 England, and the temperate latitudes of Europe ; its re- 

 mains are not uncommon in the pliocene deposits of Italy, 

 and along the European shore of the Mediterranean. No 

 remains of Hippopotamus major have yet been discovered 

 in any part of Asia. The genus is represented in the rich 

 fossiliferous tertiary deposits of the Sivalik Hills by a 

 Hippopotamus with six incisive teeth in the lower jaw, 

 from which difference its discoverers, Capt. Cautley and Dr. 

 Falconer, have proposed for it the sub-generic name of 

 Hexaprotodon. 



We have no evidence of the Hippopotamus having 

 existed on our planet anterior to the pliocene division of 

 the tertiary epoch : and the ancient extinct, like the recent 

 species, seems to have been confined to the Eastern Hemi- 

 sphere. 



* Principles of Geology, 1837, vol. i. p. 144. 



