——— 
1852.) 53 
trader will venture up from the town of Barra, at the junction of the Amazon 
and Negro rivers, who may be able to procure a very small quantity of Balsam 
de Copaiba, or some gums. These traders report this tribe as inoffensive, living 
on fish and fruits, entirely without clothing, and killing animals with a blow gun 
and poisoned arrows. 
The owner of one of these heads carried it with him, and when fishing, had it 
placed with the face towards him “for luck’s sake,”’ and it is extremely rare to 
get them to part with one. 
These are the only ones I have ever met with from this river ; those in the col- 
lection of the late Dr. Morton, presented by me, were of thetribe of Mundrucus, 
living between the Tapajos and Madeira rivers, and one is, I think, figured in 
the works of Spix and Von Martius.?? 
March 16th. 
Mr. Orb, President, in the Chair. 
Letters were read 
From the Librarian of the British Museum, dated Feb. 24, 1852, 
acknowledging the receipt of the Proceedings, Vol. 5, No. 11. 
From the Faculty of Harvard College, dated Cambridge, Feb. 27, 1852, 
acknowledging the receipt of a copy of the Memoir of Dr. Morton by 
Dr. Meigs. 
Dr. Leidy called the attention of the members to five heads lying upon the 
table, of what were usually considered as belonging to a single species of Hip- 
popotamus, under the name of H. amphibius. ‘Two of the specimens are 
from North Western Africa, and three from Southern Africa. Between those of 
the two localities, various differences were pointed out, the most important being 
the’ existence of asingle band of enamel upon the upper canines of the North 
Western Hippopotamus, and the band being divided into two by a space of three 
lines on the outer side of the posterior groove in the Southern Hippopotamus. 
Dr. L. therefore concluded with Desmoulins and Duvernoy, that there were two 
distinct species of, Hippopotamus, and as that of Northern Africa was the ear- 
liest known, the name, H. amphibius should be retained for it, while that of the 
South should retain Desmoulin’s name of H. capensis. 
Dr. Le Conte mentioned that the specimens of Casteroides Ohioensis, 
presented this evening, were important, as giving a new locality to this 
animal. They were obtained by Dr. Feuchtwanger from a well near 
Shawneetown, forty feet below the surface. 
Dr. Hays stated that the tooth of the fossil Tapir presented by him 
this evening, was found in the bed of a canal in North Carolina. It 
had been in his possession for several years, and was the first fossil 
Tapir tooth found in North America. 
March 23d. 
Vice-President Brinces in the Chair. 
Dr. Leidy called attention to the very fine skeleton of Troglodytes 
gorilla, recently presented to the Academy by Dr. Henry A. Ford of 
Liberia, which is now mounted and in the Hall. The height, as it now 
stands, is four feet nine inches. 
