396 ON THE FOSSIL BONES OF PACHYDERMATOUS QUADRUPKES. 



yuishable by their trefoil figures and the olher delineations of their 

 crown : they are the last grinder, and the last but one of the left 

 side. This specimen is, unquestionably, a fossil : it is penetrated 

 with a ferruginous substance, but, like the rest, it is unaccompanied 

 by any indication of the place of its oriuin. However, as JVI. Jkuhert 

 was treasurer of the States of Languedoc, and as the duties of this 

 office required his presence frequently at Montpellier, it is very pro- 

 bable that it was there he procund this fragment, and moreover that 

 he may have extracted it from the same precise spot called Mosson, 

 from which Antoine de Jussieu had formerly procured similar relics. 

 When I passed through Montpellier in 1802, 1 inquired most care- 

 fully for all the fossils which might be in the Museums there. I ex- 

 amined with attention the collection of my esteemed fellow-labourer, 

 M. Gouan, and that of the central school, which was then under the 

 direction of the late 3VI. Draparnaud, but without being able to discover 

 a single fossil relic of the hippopotamus. Some time after, having 

 seen this S]jecimen of the collection of Joubert, I was examining a 

 variety of fossils picked up in the Valley of the Arno, by iM. Miot, at 

 the period when he was French Ambassador at the Court of the great 

 Duke of Tuscany, when I observed an astragalus which I was unable 

 to refer to its species. M. Miot having had the kindness to lend it 

 to me, that I might examine it at my leisure, I very soon discovered 

 that it neither belonged to the elephant nor the rhinoceros ; and as 

 its large size would not admit of the supposition of its having belonged 

 to an animal inferior to them in magnitude, I had no longer any doubt 

 of its having formed part of an hippopotamus. 



Its shape strengthened this supposition. It bore an almost perfect 

 resemblance to the astragalus of the pig ; and, of all animals, the pig 

 is undoubtedly that whose organization approximates closely to that of 

 the hippopotamus. 



These two considerations had the effect of almost entirely dissipating 

 my doubts ; but I had the pleasure of finding a still more conclusive 

 proof, while engaged in the construction of the skeleton of a foetus 

 of an hippopotamus, which I mentioned in the preceding section. 

 There was no perceptible difference, except that of size, between the 

 astragalus of this foetus and the fossil, which became doubly valuable 

 to me, as I had not then any corresponding bone belonging to a full 

 grown animal. 



Having thus obtained a positive certainty of one of the places 

 where the bones of the hippopotamus might be discovered, I lost no 

 time in writing to M. Fabbroni, at that time director of the Royal 

 Museum at Florence, a philosopher universally celebrated, as well for 

 his amiable qualities as for his profound and comprehensive know- 

 ledge. I felt confident that several pieces of the same species would 

 be found among the fossils of his Museum, and the result proved the 

 success of my anticipations. 



M. Fabbroni sent me the drawings of three teeth, which have evi- 

 dently belonged to the hippopotamus. I have caused these drawings 

 to be engraved, and they are to be seen, plate 32, figs. 3 and 5, and 

 platt 33, fig. 10. 



The first (plate 32, fig. 3) is the last grinder but two of either jaw, 



