110 DR. C. I. FORSYTH MAJOR ON A [June 3, 



information about the locality of Cuvier's "petit Hippopotame 

 fossile." From a statement made by Gaudry several years later, 

 it appears that the writer entertained some doubts as to the 

 alleged locality of the H. ininutus : " M. Tournoiier, qui a si 

 bien explore le Sud-Ouest de la France, m'a dit qu'il ne connaissait 

 entre Dax et Tartas, au-dessous des sables des Landes, qvie la 

 moUasse calcaire coquilli^re a Ostrea crassissima, dite Mollasse 

 marine de V Arniagnac (Miocene moyen ou superieur). On devrait 

 done supposer que les debris d'une espece d'Hippopotame, c'est-^- 

 dire d'un animal de riviere, ont ete deposes dans la mer. II 

 pai-ait d'ailleurs que les Hippopotames vont quelquefois k la 

 mer." ^ 



In fact, this *' Mollasse marine de I'Armagnac " is Tortonian ^. 

 Now it is qviite inadmissible that the same mammalian species 

 should occur in the Tortonian of France and in the Pleistocene of 

 Cyprus. I am not aware that similar remains have since been 

 found in France, nor in any other European locality. There- 

 fore, considering the uncertainty prevailing as to the origin of 

 these remains in French and Brussels Museums, whereas Cuvier's 

 description of the matrix agrees with that adhering to many of 

 Miss Bate's specimens, and especially considering the identity 

 of the species, I do not hesitate to suggest that Cuvier's " petit 

 Hippopotame fossile " may have been brought over from Cyprus. 



The ossiferous breccia at Chrysostomo, neai- Kythrtea, (Hagia 

 Marina) in the district of Nicosia, whei-e Miss Bate obtained the 

 bulk of her collection, was well known in former times. The 

 Dutch painter and traveller, Corneille le Brun (de Bruyn), was 

 made aware of its existence by the then French Consul at Larnaca, 

 and he travelled to Kythraea " expressement a.fin d'aller voir un 

 certain lieu situ6 dans la montagne, oil Ton voit les os des hommes 

 et des betes qui se sont incoi'porez a la roche, qui s'entretiennent 

 et qui se sont p6trifiez."^ From what he fuii-her on says, it 

 appears that at that time (end of the seventeenth century) the 

 Greek inhabitants worshipped the place, which they believed to 

 contain the bones of some of their Saints. Le Brun detached 

 some of the bones from the breccia ; " le principal fut un os qui 

 I'essemble a celui du bras d'un homme, que les anatomistes appel- 

 lent radms" This he took with him to Europe and figured it in 

 his work (No. 193) in two pieces. From the figure it is very 

 evident that the supposed human radius is the femur of the 

 Hippopotamus represented from the posterior side, the larger 

 fragment being the proximal, the smaller the distal portion. 



There is a recent form also which claims relationship with the 

 pigmy fossil Hippopotamus. Gervais, almost the only writer of 

 more modern times, who in connection with the study of fossil 



1 Bull. Soc. G^ol. de France, (3) iv. p. 504, footnote 1 (1876). 



2 De Lappareiit, ' Traite de Geologie,' 4me ed. p. 1525 et seqq. (1900). 



3 Corneille le Brun, ' Voyage au Levant, c'est-a-dire dans les principaux endroits de 

 I'Asie Mineure dans les isles do Chio, de Rhodes, de Chypre, etc' Traduit du 

 Flamand. Delft, 1700, p. 375. 



