THE HIPPOPOTAMUS. 243 



curious feat was most probably performed in Alexandria, where 

 he assumed the purple. 



The 1000th anniversary of Eome (a.d. 248) was celebrated by 

 the Emperor Philip in incessant games, continued for three days 

 and three nights, when the animals collected by Gordianus Pius 

 were exhibited. Among them, we learn, were 32 elephants, 10 

 tigers, 1 elks, 60 lions, 30 leopards, 10 hyenas, 1 hippopotamus, 

 10 giraffes, 1 rhinoceros, 40 wild horses, and 20 wild asses, 

 a vast number of deer, goats, antelope, and other beasts, and this 

 sight was crowned by brutal carnage, 2000 gladiators being 

 matched in mortal affray. The hippopotamus which was exhibited 

 on this memorable occasion was considered such a rare novelty, 

 that its appearance was commemorated on the medals of Queen 

 Otacilla Severa, the wife of Philip, and on the coins of their son 

 Philip Junior. 



In the middle of the sixteenth century a living hippopotamus 

 was seen in Constantinople by two French travellers and described 

 by Belon, but, with this exception, there is no record of any speci- 

 mens of this animal being seen in Europe from the Roman period 

 till the year 1850, when the council of the Zoological Society came 

 to the conclusion that if the Romans could successfully transport 

 the animal alive from its native river nineteen hundred years ago, 

 the feat might surely be performed at the present day, and 

 accordingly accepted the offer which the Yiceroy of Egypt, Abbas 

 Pasha, made of his assistance in the capturing of a hippopotamus 

 for their gardens. Mr. Mitchell says in his "Popular Guide" to the 

 Society's menagerie : " The difficulty of obtaining such an animal 

 may be conjectured from the fact, that after the Viceroy of Egypt 

 had determined to present one to the Society, it became necessary 

 for his Highness to despatch an expedition to the Upper Nile for 

 the purpose of making the capture, and that success was only 

 achieved after two thousand miles of the river had been ascended. 

 In the month of July, 1849, the chief huntsman of the party, in 

 searching the reedy margin of an island in the "White Nile, called 

 Obaysch, at last discovered a little hippopotamus calf which, as 

 he conjectured, had then been born about two days. It was so 

 small that in his delight at having accomplished the Pasha's 



E 2 



