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 Baehr in the west of the
Delta (ad ii. 63.); and Mannert conjectured it to be the same as the
later Xois, 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 Hecataeus, 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.

E.S. JACKSON

_America._--The probability of a short western passage to India is
mentioned in _Aristotle de Coelo_, ii., near the end.

F.Q.

_Pascal's Lettres Provinciales._--I take the liberty of forwarding to
you the following "Note," suggested by two curious blunders which fell
under my notice some time ago.

In Mr. Stamp's reprint of the Rev. C. Elliott's _Delineation of
Romanism_ (London, 8vo. 1844), I find (p. 471., in note) a long
paragraph on Pascal's _Lettres Provinciales_:--

"This exquisite production," says the English editor, "_is
accompanied, in some editions of it, with the learned and
judicious observations of Nicole_, who, under the fictitious
name of Guillaume Wendrock, has fully demonstrated the truths of
those facts which Pascal had advanced without quoting his
authorities; and has placed, in a full and striking light,
several interesting circumstances which that great man had
treated with perhaps too much brevity. _These letters ... were
translated into Latin by Ruchelius_."

From Mr. Stamp's remarks the reader is led to conclude that the _text_
of the _Lettres Provinciales_ {278} is accompanied in some editions by
observations of Wendrock (Nicole), likewise in the French language. Now
such an assertion merely proves how carelessly some annotators will
study the subjects