Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1894-07-06
THE HlPPoPoTAMUs.
sa,oe of the Traits That Distinguish Most
 Pecnliar Animal

ka.ne of the TrNfts That itiseins s aiSii . 'A0e'
 Peculiar Animal
 out of a large number of representa-
 .sTas of the genus once widely spread
 ~or the old world, the common and
 .,irnv hippopotami, both of which are
 fanfned to Africa, are the only species
 ,sbich have survived to the present day;
 and the reader will at once see, when
 t9e have taken into consideration the
 ,,robable habits of the extinct kinds,
 baw fortunate it is that these two
 Tg;delv different forms have been pre-
 sarved to us. Were there only the aammon species. We should have had
 ,o conception that any hippopotamus
 nnesessed the habits charaeterizing the smaller kind, and might have been led in drawing very erroneous inferences d to the mode of life and habitat of Fossil hippopotami.
 The general appearance of the com non hippopotamus is so familiar to all tbat we need not spend much time in discussing it. We may observe, how aver. that the enormous size of the Read. and especially the great width nY the mouth, the prominent position nf the eyes and nostrils, the minute ears, bulky body, short and stout limbs. and short tail, are among the most striking external features of the Creature. The presence of hoofs -four i'd number on each foot shows that the hippopotamus belongs to the great arder of hoofed, or ungulate, mammals, and the thickness of its nearly naked hide led the older naturalists to place fl among what used to be called the naehvderms It has been showned, however, by anatomical investigations that the group thus designated, which Excluded such totally different forms as elephants, rhinoceroses. and hippo potami. is an entirely artificial one, and that hippopotami, together with Their near relatives, the pigs, are much more closely connected with the ruminants. The hippopotamus is the most primitive of all the even-toed hoofed mammals that have survived to the present day. and is, therefore. creature of special interest to the be- Never in evolution. It is, indeed a member of the great group from which the ruminants are considered to have Originated; although if the reader should be led from this statement to lump to the conclusion that i hippopo- tamus was in any sense an ancestor of the giraffe he would be led into griev- ous error. As is the case with nearly all existing animals of primitive type, the hippopotamus, in place of being an ,,. T the original stock. which has developed certain specialized features not found in the latter To show that this is the case. we have but to study the teeth of the various species of hfppopotami, which are of such a nature as to show Exclusively that those of the runi- nants could not have been derived from them
 That the hippopotamus is the animal Indicated in the book of Job under the name of behefnoth is, according to Canon 4ristram. undoubted. but there IS no evidence that the Jews were ac- Qnaited with it otherwise than during their sojourn in Egypt. 1t is true, in- deed. that the writer just mentioned Suggests that it's range may have ex- tended eastward as far as Palestine. but this is d mere conjecture, and had the creature ever lived there the expe- ditions which have from time to time Explored that country ought to have found some of it's remains. In the Pleistocene and upper Pliocene deposits of southern and central Europe there oeeur however, numerous remains of a hippopotamus which can not be speci- aeally distinguished from the existing African form. although it was gen orally of rather larger size The diff Ference in life was at one time thought to indicate that the fossil form was distinet species, but the discovery many years ago of half-fosSilized jaw in the alluvium of the Nile. near Kala- beshi, in Nubia, showed that in former times the African hippopotamus at talned dimensions as large as the Flu fopean form. In England the hippo potamus ranged at least as far north as Leeds, and it is a remarkable circum- Stance that in many places it's remains haye been found in association with 1hose of the reindeer How animals noW lnhabiting countries with such to- tally different climatic conditions as tropical Africa and Lapland could have tlYed Tn the same country at the same time, is very difficult to under stand If the hippopotamus had been Different from the living African one i've might have regarded it as a ter 1estial species like that of Liberia. and thus perchance capable of standing a eolder climate; but being identical with the former we are perforce competed to believe that it's habits were similar. and that in it's habitat the rivers must have been more or less free from ice Throughout the year, Whatever may he the true explanation of the diff culty, Ii Is pretty clear that the theory of summer and winter migrations will not hold good, as the hippopotanus is essentially resident animal.-Knowl- edge.
 PERSONAL AND LITERARY.