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



Lake, Geol. Mag. 1885, pp. 318-320. The geology of the locality 

 and its superficial deposits have been very accurately described by the 

 Rev. 0. Fisher, M.A., F.G.S., see Quart Journ. Geol. Soc, 1879, 

 vol. xxxv. pp. 670 — 677.) 



Of the European localities three may be specially noticed as 

 yielding remains of Hippopotamus amphibius in considerable numbers, 

 namely, at Perrier and Puy de Dome in France, and in the Val 

 d'Arno in Tuscany. 



I have argued from the presence of remains of Sirenia so 

 widely distributed in the European Tertiaries a generally warmer 

 climate, and I am glad to find that the late Dr. Falconer adopted 

 the same view from the fact of the presence of remains of Hippo- 

 potami in so many English localities. This accomplished naturalist 

 thus sums up his views: — "In speculating about the probable 

 climatal conditions on the land in Europe during the Pliocene 

 period, one of the fossil pachyderms has appeared to me capable 

 of throwing more light than all the others, namely, Hippopota- 

 mus major. Two living species of this genus are known, the 

 one Hippopotamus amphibius, and the other the small Hippopotamus 

 Liberiensis. They are both found in the tropical or warmer parts 

 of Africa. In their habits they are strictly aquatic, plunging into 

 rivers during the day, and emerging at night to pasture along 

 the river banks. They always hug the margins of the rivers 

 or lakes, and are not known to make inland journeys away from 

 them. When they migrate, they either float with the stream, or, if 

 moving against it, they walk along the bed of the river, only leaving 

 it for a short distance, when their course is interrupted by rapids, and 

 replunging into the stream when the obstacles cease. Wherever they 

 are found, they enjoy open water all the year round. Their un- 

 wieldy heavy form and short limbs are admirably adapted for their 

 aquatic habits, but unfit them for journeying by land. 



" There is no reason to believe that the huge European fossil species 

 was in any respect less aquatic in its habits than its living congeners. 

 Wherever its remains have been discovered in the greatest abundance 

 and perfection, it has invariably been along the margins of rivers or 

 great lakes, such as the Val d'Arno, where the bones of hundreds 

 of individuals have been observed. It appears to have been spread 

 over nearly the whole of the Pliocene area of England, since bones 

 and teeth have been described from the valleys of the Severn, the 

 Avon, and the Thames, Kirkdale Cave, Kent's Hole, and Durdham 

 Down. The general argument, so ably discussed by Dr. Fleming, 

 that we cannot predicate, in many cases, what the food and habits of 

 extinct species of the same genus may have been, will not apply to 

 the fossil Hippopotamus major, which must have lived in open water 

 free from ice, if it lived the whole year round in England. That it 

 was capable of migration by land more than the existing species we 

 have no grounds for believing ; and if it is argued that there may 

 have been large rivers flowing from the south during the Pliocene 

 period, along the course of which the Hippopotami could have 

 migrated during winter, the argument might apply to the population 



