17 76. January. animal chiefly chews; at leaft fome traces of this oblique form were difcoverable on the dried tongue I am fpeak- ing of. On the ikin o f the hippopotamus calf which I had fluffed for the Royal Academy, there are fome ftiff reddiih- brown hairs, from a quarter to half an inch long, fome on the infide of the ears, and others about the nofe and the back part of the neck ; but they grow fo fcattered and thin, as to be at the diftance of i-8th, or even half an inch from each other. There are alfo hairs upon the back like the former, excepting that they are ftill more thinly fcattered and ihorter; thefe were longeft on the edges of the tail, as I formerly obferved in the defcription 1 gave of this animal in the Swedifh Tranfadtions, though they have fince fallen off during the fluffing o f the animal. The reft o f the hide is quite bare of hairs. The tail itfelf is flattened at the fides, and confequently the edges or iharp parts o f it look upwards and downwards, as in the tail of the rhinoceros. The tufks, or canine teeth are to be feen on the calf here defcribed, already grown to the length o f half an in ch ; but thofe o f the large fea-cows weigh, according- to K olbe, ten pounds. An affertion which is, however, criticized by M. de la C a il l e , at page 349, who aliens, that they fcarcely weigh three pounds. M. de Buffon again, Tom. XII. page 38, fays, that the weight of one of the grinders exceeds three pounds, and that the tuiks are each of them from twelve to fixteen inches in length, and weigh twelve or thirteen pounds. On the other hand, though I have adtually had an opportunity of feeing a great many very large fea-cow-teeth, yet I find that one of the the largeft fize which I had brought home with me Mid prefented to the Royal Academy o f Sciences, weighs no more than fix pounds nine ounces, and is twenty-feven inches long, meafured along the infide of its curve; and confequently about twice the length, and at the fame time not half the weight of that mentioned by M. de Bu f fo n . It is therefore to be hoped, that this illuftrious author will excufe my prefumption in doubting the accuracy o f his account, efpecially as M. D au b en to n himfelf, at page 62 o f the fame tome, makes the length o f a canine tooth of the hippopotamus to be twenty-fix inches, and confequently twice as long as it is affirmed to be by M. de Buffon. I have not yet weighed a grinder o f one o f thefe animals; at prefent, however, I cannot help doubting, whether M. de Buffon can find any that exceed the weight o f three pounds; for an elephant’s grinder, which I brought home with me as a prefent for the cabinet of the Royal Academy, weighs four pounds and a half, and is nine inches broad; but yet, to judge from the eye, was at leaft three times as large in every dimenfion as any grinder of a hippopotamus, with which I compared it, and o f which I have had an opportunity of feeing great numbers, in feveral flculls, in different fpots on the banks of Vifch-rivier, being the relicks of fea-cows which the farmers had ihot there from time to time. From what has been faid it likewife follows, that Kolbe is in this place moft to be depended upon. M. de Buffon is, however, in the right, when he aflerts, 1. c. page 48, that K olbe took the figures of his animals from other people, and compofed moft of his defcriptions from O o a memory, 17 76. January.
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