OEDBIl OF PACHYDEEMATA. 133 



circumference. After the Elephant and the Ehinoceros, it is 

 the largest of terrestrial Mammalia. Its head, very bulky, 

 especially in its facial portion, is terminated in a large swelling 

 muzzle. Its mouth, immoderately large, extends very nearly 

 from eye to eye. All who have seen, in the Jardin des Plantes, at 

 Paris, this monstrous mouth opening for a little piece of bread, 

 have been surprised at the frightful appearance of this living 

 gulf, armed with enormous canine, and large and pointed incisive, 

 teeth. When it is shut, the upper lip descends in front and o:i 

 the sides, like an enormous blobber lip (lip'pa), which covers tho 

 extremity of the lower jaw, and partly hides the underlip ; but 

 on the sides it is the lower lip which stands up. The nostrils, 

 which are in front of the muzzle, are surrounded by a musculai' 

 apparatus, which closes them hermetically Avhen the animal is 

 under water. The eyes are of middling size, but prominent, 

 The upper portion of its head, denuded of hair, and of a l^inky 

 colour, reminds one of a calf's head, after preparation at tho 

 butcher's shop. An enormous, round body, sjireading out on all 

 sides, is crushed, as we may say, on to legs so short and fat that its 

 belly nearly touches the ground. Each foot has four toes, each fui- 

 nished with a little hoof. The tail, which is very short, has on it, 

 hei'e and there, a few hairs. The whole of this mass is covered 

 with a bare skin, of a brownish hue, except at the joints, romid 

 the eyes, at the groins, &c., where it is pink. Numerous little 

 hairs project from the surface of its skin, which is of considerable 

 thickness, and fully justifies the place this animal has been given 

 in the order of Pachydermata. 



The Hijjpopotamus inhabits Southern and Eastern Africa ; but 

 everjrthing announces that it will not be long in disappeaiin;^- 

 before civilization, that is to say, the sportsman's gun. They were 

 formerljr much more abundant in the Nile than they are now, and 

 they diminish equally in other localities. In the time of Levail- 

 lant, that is to say in the eighteenth century, they abounded in 

 the colony of the Cape of Good Hope ; but, in 1838, there were 

 only two left on the property of a rich horse-breeder, who very 

 carefull}^ protected them. 



These animals live in troops on the banks of rivers and in their 

 waters. On land, their gait is clunis}- and heavy, for their own 

 enormous weight fatigues them; but the}- are very quick and 



