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ART. XVIII. — Additional Obseroations on a new living species of Hippopotamus. 

 By Samuel George Morton, M. D. Penn. & Edirib. 



In the year 1 840 I met with a man who had travelled extensively throuo-h the 

 colony of Liberia, and beyond the limits of that province into the Dey and Bassa 

 countries on the western coast of Africa. Among a variety of statements made by 

 this person, was one to the effect that he had repeatedly seen, in the rivers of this 

 interior region, a small Hippopotamus, not longer in the body than a middle-sized 

 heifer, though, possessing the relative proportions of the common Hippopotamus, to 

 which it bore in all respects an epitomized resemblance. He further stated that the 

 natives hunted this animal for food, and that he had himself seen it killed and eaten. 

 This person's account, and his replies to my questions, were clear and consistent 

 throughout ; but some subsequent circumstances tended to cast a doubt upon his 

 veracity, and satisfied me that his statements required confirmation from other 

 sources. 



In the summer of 1843, however, I received from my friend Dr. Goheen an 

 extensive series of skulls of the mammiferous animals of Western Africa. They nad 

 been obtained by him during a residence of several years at Monrovia, in Liberia, 

 where he had officiated as Colonial Physician ; a situation that gave him great 

 facilities for procuring the natural productions of that region. Among these crania 

 were two of a small Hippopotamus from the river St. Pauls ; a str§am that rises in 

 the mountains of Guinea, and passing through the Dey country and Liberia, empties 

 into the Atlantic to the north of Cape Messurado. 



Although nothing could be more manifest than the difference, both in size and 

 conformation, between the head of this animal and that of the common Hippopotamus, 

 I for some time hesitated to publish it, under the impression that so remarkable a 

 species could not have wholly escaped the attention of zoologists. Having, however, 

 carefully examined the latest European works on Zoology without finding any notice 

 of it, I at length published a description, accompanied with two wood engravings, in 

 the Academy's Proceedings for the month of February, 1844; and inasmuch as all 

 subsequent investigation, both in Europe and this country, has confirmed the entire 

 novelty of this species, I now republish it with some corrections, and much larger 

 and more accurate illustrations, 

 I first announced this animal by the name of Hippopotamus minor ; not knowing 



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