Dr. H. Woodward — Recent and Fossil Hippopotami. 115 



the African continent, and to its rivers and opposite coasts, the 

 ancestors of the Halicore and Manatee (the Halitherium, Felsino- 

 therium, and some ten other fossil genera of Sirenians) probably inter- 

 mingled and extended 30° further north than at present from the West 

 Indies and Carolina through England, Belgium, France, Germany, 

 Italy, and North Africa, whilst Bhytina, the largest of them all, only 

 became extinct 100 years ago on the shores of Behring's Island, 

 Kamtchatka. The evidence which the fossil remains of Sirenia 

 afford of a more northerly geographical extension of subtropical 

 mammalia in Tertiary times, is abundantly confirmed by other 

 genera, to one of which only, the Hippopotamus, I will here refer. 



It has always seemed at first an anomalous circumstance to find 

 the remains of the Hippopotamus and the Reindeer in the same 

 Tertiary deposits, the latter belonging to the extreme northern 

 lands of Europe, Asia, and North America, and the former to Central 

 Africa ; but in late Tertiary and early Prehistoric times, when our 

 island formed a part of the mainland of Europe, the migratory 

 herds of Reindeer not only reached this country in winter, but 

 advanced as far south as into France and Spain ; whilst the rivers of 

 Italy, France and England were all the summer, if not the winter, 

 the resort of the Hippopotamus, which has left its remains as far 

 north as Leeds and Kirkdale in Yorkshire. 



It was formerly customary to refer the numerous remains of the 

 large species of Hippopotamus found fossil in this country, in France, 

 and in Italy, to the H. major, of Owen (1843), or to the H. antiquus, 

 of Desmarest (1822) ; but the researches of Prof. Boyd Dawkins have 

 led to the conclusion that they all undoubtedly belong to the living 

 African Hippopotamus, H. amphibius of Linnaeus (1766). 



Like the " Manatee," the Hippopotami, where undisturbed, fre- 

 quent with equal pleasure the coast, as they do the rivers. North 

 of Port Natal they are said not only to abound in the rivers, but upon 

 the sea-shore, retreating to the sea when disturbed or attacked. 



Such evidence as this enables us to understand the presence, in 

 prehistoric times, of the Hippopotamus in Britain, at least during the 

 summer season, even after its partial isolation from the continent. 



Its remains have been found at Kirkstall, near Leeds ; in the 

 Norfolk Forest-Bed-series at Bacton, and Hasbro' ; at Lavenham in 

 Suffolk ; at Barnwell, near Cambridge; at Chelmsford, Cold Higham, 

 Grays, and Walton, in Essex ; in the Valley of the Ouse at Bedford; 

 at Greenwich, Kent; Peckham, Surrey; in Camden Town, in fact, 

 very generally in the Thames Valley ; often associated with remains 

 of Reindeer, Rhinoceros, and Mammoth. 



Hippopotamus-bones are less frequently found in caves, than in 

 river-valley deposits ; but in several their remains are recorded, 

 associated with those of the Reindeer, namely : — Pont Newydd near 

 St. Asaph, N. Wales ; Kirkdale Cave, Yorkshire ; Gower Caves, 

 Glamorganshire; Cefn Cave; Settle Cave; and Durdham Down 

 Caves. 



An interesting and abundant find of Hippopotamus-remains was 

 recently obtained at Barrington, near Cambridge (noticed by Mr. P. 



