_The Hippopotamus._--Your correspondent L. (Vol. ii., p. 35.) says,
"None of the Greek writers appear to have seen a live hippopotamus:" and
again, "The hippopotamus, being an inhabitant of the Upper Nile, was
imperfectly known to the ancients." Herodotus says (ii. 71.) that this
animal was held sacred by the Nomos of Papremis, but not by the other
Egyptians. The city of Papremis is fixed by Bähr in the west of the
Delta (ad ii. 63.); and Mannert conjectured it to be the same as the
later Xoïs, lying between the Sebennytic and Canopic branches, but
nearer to the former. Sir Gardner Wilkinson says, several
representations of the hippopotamus were found at Thebes, one of which
he gives (_Egyptians_, vol. iii. pl. xv.). Herodotus' way of speaking
would seem to show that he was describing from his own observation: he
used Hecatæus, no doubt, but did not blindly copy him. Hence, I think,
we may infer that Herodotus himself saw the hippopotamus, and that this
animal was found, in his day, even as far north as the Delta: and also,
that the species is gradually dying out, as the aurochs is nearly gone,
and the dodo quite. The crocodile is no longer found in the Delta.