AMPHIBIOUS HIPPOPOTAMUS. 



447 



sight of four crocodiles, and one Hippopotamus. 

 They were exhibited in a temporary lake prepared 

 for the purpose. Augustus is also said to have 

 exhibited one on his triumph over Cleopatra. 

 The animal, however, was not so far noticed as to 

 have been properly described by the ancients ; 

 neither Aristotle nor Pliny giving accurate ac- 

 counts of it; nor was it till about the beginning 

 of the seventeenth century that it could be said 

 to be justly described. At that period Zerenghi, 

 an Italian surgeon, printed at Naples a tolerably 

 accurate description, accompanied by a figure 

 from the dried skin. The same figure is also re- 

 peated in Aldrovandus, &c. It is but lately that 

 the full history of the animal has been known, 

 and that accurate and satisfactory representations 

 of it have been published ; and this has been 

 chiefly owing to the laudable and zealous efforts 

 of Dr. Sparmann, Colonel Gordon, Mr. Mas- 

 son, and others, in examining the living animal 

 in its native regions, and by their observations 

 contributing to complete the descriptions of na- 

 turalists. 



The largest female Hippopotamus killed by Co- 

 lonel Gordon was about eleven feet long, and the 

 largest male, which always exceeds the female in 

 size, about eleven feet eight inches. Mr. Bruce, 

 however, speaks of Hippopotami in the lake Tzana 

 of more than twenty feet long. 



The Hippopotamus has only a single stomach, 

 and does not ruminate: the stomach, however, 



