iS6 THE HIPPOPOTAMUS. 



us, that he brought only the fkin. Columna 

 makes the body of his hippopotamus thirteen 

 feet long *, and fourteen feet in circumference, 

 and the legs three feet and a half in length ; 

 while, by the meaiures of Zerenghi, the body was 

 only eleven feet two inches long, its circumference 

 ten feet, the legs one foot ten inches and a half, 

 &c. We can have no dependence, therefore, on 

 Columna's delcription: Neither can he be excu- 

 fed by fuppofing that his defcription was taken 

 from another fubjecl:; for it is evident, from his 

 own words, that he defcribed the lmalleft of Ze- 

 renghi's two hippopotami, fince he acknowled- 

 ges, that, fome months afterward, Zerenghi ex- 

 hibited a fecond hippopotamus, which was much 

 larger than the firft. I have infilled upon this 

 point, becaufe no body has done juftice to Ze- 

 renghi, though he merits the higheft eulogiums. 

 On the contrary, all naturalifts,forthefe hundred 



and 



* Hippopotami a nobis confpe<£li ac dimenfi corpus a capite 

 ad caudam pedes erat tredecim, corporis latitudo five diame- 

 ter pedes quatuor cum dimidio, ejufdem altitudo pedes tres 

 cum dimidio, ut planum potius quam carinofum ventrem 

 habeat : Orbis corporis quantum longitudo erat : Crura e 

 terra ad ventrem pedes tres cum dimidio : Ambitus crurum 

 pedes tres; pes latus pedem ; ungulae iingulae uncias tres : 

 Caput vero latum pedes duo cum dimidio, longum pedes tres; 

 cralTum ambitu pedes feptem cum dimidio : Oris riclus pedem 

 unum, ccc. Perhaps the foot ufed by Columna was fhorter 

 than the Paris foot. But this circumftance will not juftify 

 him; for the body of his hippopotamus being thirteen feet 

 long, its circumference ought to have been only eleven feet 

 feven or eight inches, and not fourteen feet. The other pro- 

 portions are equally erroneous ; for they correfpond not v 

 <-hofe given by Zerenghi. 



