OEDEE OP PACHYDEEMATA. 
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circumference. After the Elephant and the Rhinoceros, 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 J ardin 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 on 
the sides, like an enormous blobber lip ( lippa ), which covers the 
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 muscular 
apparatus, which closes them hermetically when 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 pinky 
colour, reminds one of a calf’s head, after preparation at the 
butcher’s shop. An enormous, round body, spreading 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 fur- 
nished with a little hoof. The tail, which is very short, has on it, 
here and there, a few hairs. The whole of this mass is covered 
with a bare skin, of a brownish hue, except at the joints, round 
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 Hippopotamus inhabits Southern and Eastern Africa ; but 
everything announces that it will not be long in disappearing 
before civilization, that is to say, the sportsman’s gun. They were 
formerly 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 
carefully protected them. 
These animals live in troops on the banks of rivers and in their 
waters. On land, their gait is clumsy and heavy, for their own 
enormous weight fatigues them; but they are very quick and 
