80 THEORY OF THE EARTH. 



were slain at the secular games of the emperor 

 Philip.* 



. 



When we read with attention the descriptions 

 given of the hippopotamus by Herodotus and 

 Aristotle, which are supposed to have been bor- 

 rowed from Hecatoeus of Miletus, we cannot fail to 

 perceive that these must have been taken from 

 two very different animals ; one of which is the 

 true hippopotamus, and the other the griou, or an- 

 telope gnu of Gmelin's edition of the Systema 

 Naturae. 



The aper cethiopicus of Agatharcides, which he 

 describes as having horns, is precisely the Ethio- 

 pian hog, or engallo, of Buffbn and other modern 

 naturalists, whose enormous tusks deserve the 

 name of horns, almost as much as those of the ele- 

 phantf 



The bubalus and the nagor are described by 

 Pliny : the gazella by Elian ; the oryx by Oppian ; 

 and the axis, so early as the time of Ctesias : all of 

 them species of the antelope genus. 



Elian gives a very good description of the bos 

 grunniens, or grunting ox, under the name of the ox 

 having a tail which serves for a fly-flapper.f 



Jul. Capitol. Gord. III. cap. 23. 



. Anim. V. 27. { Id. XV. 14. 



