354 RHINOCEROS. 
which has been proposed to account for the preservation 
in ice of entire Elephants and Rhinoceroses; and Mr. 
Darwin has well remarked that “as there is evidence of 
physical changes, and as the animals have become extinct, 
so may we suppose that the species of plants have like- 
wise been changed.” But, admitting the more probable 
necessity of migration, we may derive some insight into 
the habits of the Siberian Rhinoceros by inquiring into 
those of existing large Herbivora of Arctic climes, which 
were represented by species coeval with those extinct 
Rhinoceroses. Pallas describes and figures in the same 
Memoir “ De reliquiis animalium exoticorum” in which 
he describes the frozen Rhinoceros, the fossil remains of a 
Musk Ox (Ovibos, De Bl.), which seems to be not more 
satisfactorily distinguishable from the existing species* than 
is the Urus priscus from the great Lithuanian Aurochs : 
the Musk Ox is remarkable at the present day for its 
geographical position in high northern latitudes, and its 
adaptation to such by its peculiarly fine woolly clothing, 
and its periodical migrations have been noticed by expe- 
rienced naturalists. The appearance of the Musk Ox in 
the month of May on Melville Island in latitude 75°, was 
one of the phenomena ascertained in Captain Parry’s first 
voyage, and ‘“‘is interesting,” Dr. Richardson observes,+ 
“not merely as part of their natural history, but as giving 
us reason to infer that a chain of islands lies between 
Melville Island and Cape Lyon, or that Wollaston’s and 
Banks’s Lands form one large island, over which the 
migrations of the animals must have been performed.” 
* Cuvier, ‘ Ossemens Fossiles,’ 4to. 1823, tom. iv. p. 156. 
+ * Fauna Boreali-Americana, Mammalia,’ p. 276. 
