60 MEMOIR OF CAMPER. 



success. " How often," on one occasion he remarks, 

 " have I made you regardless of the asperities of 

 winter, while your attention has been rivetted when 

 I explained to you the structure of the tortoise, the 

 chamois, or some other and still rarjer animal." 



One of these occasions occurred during the long 

 continued and severe winter of 1771-2, when Cam- 

 per had recently received from the Governor of the 

 Cape of Good Hope, the head of a double-horned 

 rhinoceros. It had reached him, we may remark, 

 at a peculiarly fortunate time ; for many fossil bones 

 and heads of this animal had, from time to time, been 

 found in Siberia, and had been frequently described, 

 whilst no specimen of the animal was contained in 

 any of the European cabinets, nor was there any sa- 

 tisfactory account of a living one ; in fact, it was sup- 

 posed it had become extinct, or was antediluvian. 

 Delighted with his valuable present, Camper opened 

 his class-room to the inhabitants of Groningen, and 

 lectured on the subject, prefacing his instructions 

 with a discourse on the delights of Natural History, 

 and its connexion with belles lettres and antiquities. 

 He then took occasion to congratulate his audience 

 on the benefits which their extended commerce con- 

 ferred on science. He remarked, that their own 

 country, and Europe itself, was too confined for their 

 curiosity, and that the four quarters of the globe 

 were put under requisition for them. " Visit," says 

 he, " our principal towns, and look at the splendid 

 museums supplied from every climate under heaven, 



