Dr. M. Woodward — On Cave Hunting. 243 



showed no indication of the trefoil pattern so characteristic of the 

 molars of ITippopotamiis. A second small parcel contained a few 

 less worn teeth, together with a germ-tooth, from which it became at 

 once evident that we had to do with a mammal of the Hippopotamus 

 tribe, about half the size of a middle-sized H. amphibius, witlrmolars 

 exhibiting a modification of the common Jlippopotamus pattern, 

 approximating them to a less specialized type of Artiodactyle teeth. 

 Dr. Forsyth Major's account of this discovery, from which we quote, 

 was published in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of 

 London (June 3, 1902 ; pp. 107-112, plates ix and x) after the 

 arrival of very numerous remains from Cyprus, obtained by Miss 

 Dorothy Bate, and carefully developed in the British Museum 

 (Natural History), Cromwell Eoad. In his description, the author 

 compares the small Hippopotamus from Cyprus with the numerous 

 remains of allied species preserved in the Museum from the other 

 Mediterranean islands and from elsewhere. Dr. Forsyth Major had 

 himself obtained and described a pigmy form from Madagascar 

 (see Geol. Mag., 1902, Dec. IV, Vol. IX, pp. 193-199, Plate XII) ; 

 another is found living in Liberia, west coast of Africa, at the 

 present day, though probably verging on extinction. The large 

 IT. amphibius has still a wide distribution on the great lakes and 

 rivers of Africa, and was once abundant also in Europe and in 

 this country ; whilst S^. sivalensis is met with fossil in the Siwalik 

 Hills of India. The Maltese caves and Sicily have yielded abundant 

 remains of the small Hippopotamus Pentlandi, and of a much smaller 

 and very rare species from Malta formerly called S. minutus. but 

 now known as H. melitensis; this is about one-fifth larger than that 

 from Cyprus, and the pattern of the teeth in the Maltese form differs 

 from that of Cyprus and agrees closely, except in size, with the 

 living H. ampMbius ; they cannot, therefore, be referred to the 

 same species. 



Dr. Forsyth Major also compares the Cyprus Hippopotamus with 

 one from the lignites of Casino (Tuscany), and also with one from 

 the Wadi-Natrun, described by Dr. C. W. Andrews. They are larger 

 in size than the Cypriote specimens and present other differences ; 

 the Casino specimen, in particular, being hexaprotodont in its 

 dentition. Strange to say, a perfect counterpart both in shape and 

 size to the Cyprus specimen is presented by Cuvier's " petit Hippo- 

 potame fossile" {H minutus, Blainv.), a species of Hippopotamus 

 which resembles in miniature the living hippopotamus, but which 

 does not surpass the size of a pig, the locality of which was, alas ! 

 unhiown, Cuvier having found the specimen in the basement of the 

 Paris Museum without any label to record its origin. He after- 

 wards received some identical remains from a private collection in 

 Bordeaux, and from the Cabinet d'Histoire Naturelle of a M. Decken 

 in Brussels. Whilst admitting the absolute identity of the Cyprus 

 teeth collected by Miss Bate to-day with those described a hundred 

 years ago (but without a locality) by Cuvier, Dr. Forsyth Major 

 points out that in all stages of their growth they differ most 

 specifically from the living H. amphibius. Cuvier's specimens 



