THE HIPPOPOTAMUS. 287 



and fixty years, have afcribed to Fabius Colum- 

 na what was due to Zerenghi alone ; and, :n- 

 ftead of inquiring after the work of the latter, 

 they have contented themfelves with copying 

 and praifing that of Columna, though, with re- 

 gard to this article, he is neither original, exact, 

 nor even honeft.. 



The defcription and figures of the hippopota- 

 mus, which Profper Alpinus published more than 

 a hundred years after, are ftill worfe than thole 

 of Columna, having been drawn from ill prefer- 

 ved fkins; and M. Juffieu *, who wrote upon 

 the hippopotamus in the year 1724, has only 

 defcribed the bones of the head and feet. 



By comparing thefe defcriptions, and efpecial- 

 ly that of Zerenghi, with the information deri- 

 ved from travellers f, it appears that the hippo- 

 potamus 



* Mem. de l'Acad. de Sciences, aim. 1724. p. 209. 



f In the river Nile there are hippopotami or fea-korjes. In 

 the year 1658, one of them was taken at Girge. It was foon 

 brought to Cairo, where I faw it in the month of February 

 of the fame year; but it was dead. This animal was of a 

 kind of tawny colour. Behind he refembled the buffalo ; but 

 his legs were lhorter and thicker. He was as tall as a camel. 

 His muzzle refembled that of an ox ; but his body was twice 

 as large. His head was fimilar to that of a horfe, but larger. 

 His eyes were fmall, his neck very thick, his ears fmall, his 

 noflrils very large and open, his feet very large, almoft round, 

 with four toes on each, like thofe of the crocodile, and his 

 tail fmall. Like the elephant, he had little or no hair on 

 the fkin. In the under jaw, he had four*large teeth, about 

 half a foot in length. Two of them were crooked, and as 

 thick as the horns cf an ox. At fir ft, he was miftaken for a 



fea 



