Fossil Rhinoceros. 858 



to the fossil teeth and vertebrae of the horse, found near Never- 

 sink Hills, state of New Jersey. 



The cabinet of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadel- 

 phia, also contains specimens, from the Valley of the Ohio or 

 Mississippi, and we have to acknowledge the receipt of others 

 from Col. I. J. Abert, of Washington, which were found in 

 excavating for the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, near George- 

 town, D. C, not far from the Potomac River. 



Genus Rhinoceros. 



RiNOCEBOiDES Alleghaniensts. 



Vid. Am. Monthly Journal of Geology, &c. where, under this name is figured 

 and described a petrifaction which displays a considerable resemblance to the 

 bony snout of the rhinoceros. The original specimen was sent to London, and 

 the geologist who there examined it considered it of too doubtful a character 

 to be admitted as a fossil remnant- 



For ourselves, we are disposed to wait for further discoveries 

 of this nature, previous to admitting the present specimen as a 

 part of our fossil fauna. The specimen is no less singular or 

 interesting to geologists, as demonstrating the very close analogy 

 of a mere lusiis nature of the mineral kingdom, if it be nothing 

 else, to a portion of the animal skeleton. One argument applied 

 to this and other similar specimens, in order to prove that it 

 could not be considered as an organic relic, viz. the total ab- 

 sence of bony material, I conceive to be by no means conclu- 

 sive; it being quite possible that the skeleton of an animal 

 might be so circumstanced as to become completely minera- 

 lized, or changed from its original structure, just as we observe 

 some vegetable structures to have changed. In ordinary in- 

 stances, we are well aware the very reverse of this, as regards 

 bones, is the fact ; even the animal matter in fossil bones would 

 appear to be, under some circumstances, as indestructible as the 

 rock in which they are entombed, some of which are compara- 

 tively ancient, such as the saurian bones contained in the cupe- 

 rose schists of Europe, and which were found on analysis to 

 contain animal mattei-. 



