109 



1902. J FOSSIL HIPPOPOTAMUS FROM CYPRUS. 



Dr. Andrews. The Italian and Egyptian Hippopotamus is of 

 superior size to the Oypriotie, and the Casino fossil has been shown 

 to be hexoprotodont. 



Perfect agreement in shape as well as in size with the Cyprus 

 creature is presented by Cuvier's "petit Hippopotame fossile" 

 {H. mimitiis Blamv.), as results from the all but forgotten de- 

 scription of it in the ' Ossements Fossiles ' ^ and from Blainville's 

 plate vi.- The first mention occurs in the "Programme" of the 

 'Ossements Fossiles' \ and runs as follows :— " Uneespece d'hippo- 

 potame, qui ressemble en miniature a I'hippopotame vivant mais 

 qui ne surpasse pas la grandeur du cochon. J'en ai decouvert les 

 OS dans un gres siliceux dont j'ignore le pays." Ouvier had come 

 upon this fossil m the basements of the Paris Museum, without 

 any label to record its origin ; some identical remains, likewise of 

 unknown origin, he afterwards received from a private collection 

 m Bordeaux, and from the Cabinet d'Histoire naturelle of a 

 Monsieur Decken in Brussels^. 



To-day, after almost a hundred years, it would be difficult to 

 improve upon Cuvier's description of the few remains, some of 

 whichhe himself had developed from a lump of ossiferous breccia, 

 in which the bones were cemented by a scanty matrix a " ores L 

 base calcaire," as stated in the ' Ossements Fossiles.' Blainville, 

 who attempted to improve upon and to criticize Cuvier's de-' 

 scription, utterly failed, as he generally did in his invidious 

 attempts to criticize his great predecessor's work. 



The only point in which the more copious material before me 

 seems to differ from Cuvier's description is in the interpretation 

 he gives of the difference between the fossil teeth and those of 

 H. amphihius, and which he assigns solely to the different mode 

 of wear. As stated before, they are different from the very 

 beginning; cause and effect must not be confused; an oblique 

 wear is resorted to in the fossil teeth because their different 

 conformation calls for it. 



As to the locality of the fossils described by Ouvier, it was 

 stated, many years after their first description, that, according to 

 old catalogues of M. Journu-Aubert's private collection in Bor 

 deaux, they had been found ("recueilhs") somewhere between 

 Dax and Tartas (Departement des Landes) and came into the 

 possession of one President de Borda, from whom they passed into 

 the private collection of a Monsieur Graves. After the latter's 

 death they became the property of M. Journu-Aubert, who gave 

 one of the blocks to Cuvier °. 



It has never been possible to identify this locality near Dax. 

 In 1869 P. Gervais states^ that he has failed to gather any new 



1 Ossements Fossiles, 2nd ed. i. pp. 322-331 (1821). 

 " Osteograpliie, Genre Hippopotamus, pi. vi. 



3 Journal de Physique, de Chimie et d'Histoire Naturelle, tome lii. p. 263 (Ger- 

 minal An 9, i. e. March & April, 1801). 



4 Oss. Foss. 4th ed. i. pp. 490, 491 (1834). 



5 Tom. cit. pp. 490, 491 (1834). 



6 Zool. et Pal. Gen., prem. ser. p. 250 (1867-69). 



