76 THEORY OF THE EARTH. 



tists of that country by their religion. Many of 

 their profiles of quadrupeds shew only one fore 

 and one hind leg ; and this being the case, why 

 should they have shewn two horns ? It may per- 

 haps have chanced that individuals have been ta- 

 ken in the chace, which had accidentally lost one 

 of their horns, as pretty frequently happens to the 

 chamois and saiga : and this would have been 

 sufficient to confirm the error produced by these 

 representations. It is probably in this way that 

 the unicorn has recently been reported to be found 

 in the mountains of Thibet. 



All the ancients, however, have not represented 

 the oryx as having only one horn. Oppian ex- 

 pressly gives it several #, and JElian mentions 

 oryxes which had four f . Finally, if this animal 

 was ruminant and cloven-hoofed, we know assu- 

 redly that its frontal bone must have been longi- 

 tudinally divided into two, and that it could not, 

 as is very justly remarked by Camper, have had a 

 horn placed upon the suture. 



But it may be asked, What two-horned animal 

 could have given the idea of the oryx, and pre- 

 sented the characters which it is described as pos- 

 sessing with regard to its conformation, even in- 



* Oppian, Cyneg, lib. II. v. 468. and 471. 

 t De Anim. lib. xv. cap. 14. 



