ON THE BONES OF THE HIPPOPOTAMUS. 411 



Add'.Hon to this Article. 



At the period of the reprinting of this article, I was still in the dark 

 as to the origin of the blocks containing the remains of this remarkable 

 species. M. Graves, who was for some time joint superintendant of 

 the Museum of Natural History at Bourdeaux, has since transmitted 

 to me some positive information on this subject, which he discovered 

 in an old catalogue of the Museum of M. Journu-Aubert. 



Of the two blocks in question, that which belonged to the collection 

 of that gentleman, as well as another, which still forms a part of it, 

 were picked up between Dax and Tartas, in the department of Les 

 Landes, and sent by the late President de Borda to the grandfather of 

 M. Graves, at whose death they passed into the possession of his uncle, 

 M. Journu-Aubert. 



It is beyond a doubt that the other -block, which had lain so long 

 in the King's Museum, must have been found originally in the same 

 place ; the identity of the dross, the intimacy subsisting between De 

 Borda, and Buffon, and Daubenton, to whom he had sent several 

 other curious fossils, almost amount to a positive certainty. Hence, it 

 is in the department of the Landes that we may hope to recover the 

 other remains of this highly interesting animal. 



I have also recovered, a short time since, two well characterised 

 bones of this small hippopotamus ; namely, an astragalus similar to 

 that I have just described (plate 32), and a bone of the metatarsus, 

 the third of the left side. The latter, also, bears as strong a resem- 

 blance as it possibly can to that of the great living hippopotamus ; but 

 it is only one half its length. The astragalus is 0,0 ^S 9 long, and its 

 pulley next the tarsus is 0,033 broad. The bone of the metatarsus is 

 0,058 long, and 0,19 broad in the centre. For an acquaintance with 

 these two interesting specimens I am indebted to MM. Lajonkaire and 

 Basterot,who recognised them in the Museum of M. Decken, at Brussels, 

 and prevailed upon that learned man to confide them to me. 



Article III. 

 On the Middle Sized, Fossil Hippopotamus. 



The remains of this animal have been discovered and presented to 

 the King's Museum by M. Dubuisson, Superintendant of the Museum 

 of Natural History at Nantes. 



They were found at Saint Michel de Chaisine, in the department of 

 the Maine and Loire, in a soft sandy stone, having all the appearance 

 of being a fresh water production. 



The piece, which I have represented at half its natural size 

 (plate 38, fig, 9), is a fractured portion of the left side of the lower 

 jaw, containing the last molar and the last but one, the roots of the 

 antepenultimate, and some remains of the socket of that which pre- 

 ceded it. M. Dubaisson has further sent a penultimate molar tooth 

 belonging to the right side, which had fallen from its socket. 



The portion of the jaw is broken below, so as to discover a part of 

 the maxillary canal, and two of the conduits opening on the chin 

 holes, as well as those conducting the nerves towards the canines and 



