ORYCTOLOGY. 



upwards of three feet in length, are 

 found in these quarries, and of these se- 

 veral are found whose living" analogues 

 are said to exist in the neighbourhood of 

 Japan, and of Brazil, also in Africa and 

 America. The Abbe Fortis is of opinion 

 that die actual descendants of the Vero- 

 nian fossil fishes are now to he found in 

 the sea which washes the shores of Ota- 

 hehe In Cerigo, (Cytheria) Alessano, 

 Lesina, in Dalmatia, Oemngen, Happen- 

 heini, in Aix, and in several parts of 

 France, fossil fishes are found in very ex- 

 cellent preservation. In England fossil 

 fishes are much more rarely found than 

 in France, Germany, or Italy. 



The fossil fish of Vestena Nuova are 

 supposed to prove, from several circum- 

 stances, that their privation of life was 

 sudden; some having been found with 

 the head of their prey still in their 

 mouths ; and others with the remains of 

 the fish which they have devoured still 

 in their stomachs. 



The fossil remains of birds are very 

 rarely found ; although frequently men- 

 tioned, and even described by different 

 authors. Fossils very much resembling 

 tiie beaks of birds are sometimes found ; 

 but these are much more probably parts 

 of fishes. Several of those specimens 

 which have been spoken more positively 

 of, as petrifactions of whole birds, and of 

 their nests, have been merely calcareous 

 incrustations of very modern formation. 

 Bones very much resembling the bones of 

 birds have been found in the calcareous 

 stone of Oxfordshire, and in some parts 

 of France, and of Germany. 



The fossil remains of quadrupeds, es- 

 pecially those of the larger kind, are such 

 as must necessarily excite the attention 

 and wonder of every curious inquirer in 

 natural history. In various parts of this 

 country have been found the remains of 

 elephants, and of other animals of consi- 

 derable magnitude. In Ireland have 

 been found the remains of deer of a size 

 far exceeding any now known ; and in 

 Scotland have been found the remains of 

 the elk, as well as those of an enormous 

 animal of the ox kind, but larger than 

 even the urus. In France, Germany, 

 Italy, and indeed in most parts of Europe, 

 remains of large animals have been found, 

 and in both North and South America, 

 the remains of enormous unknown ani- 

 mals have been discovered. According 

 to Pallas, from the Tanais to the conti- 

 nental angle nearest to America, there is 

 hardly a river in this immense space, espe- 

 cially 'in the plains, upon the shores, or 



in the bed of which, have not been found 

 the bones of elephants and other ani- 

 mals, not of that climate. From the 

 mountains by which Asia is bounded, to 

 the frozen shores of the ocean, all Sibe- 

 ria is filled with prodigious bones; the 

 best ivory (fossil) is found in the coun- 

 tries nearest to the arctic circle, as well 

 as in the eastern countries, which are 

 much colder than Europe, under the 

 same latitude ; countries where only the 

 surface of the ground becomes thawed 

 during summer. 



The number of bones which have been 

 discovered of the rhinoceros is very con- 

 siderable, not only in Siberia, but in Ger- 

 many, and in other parts of Europe : and 

 in the opinion of St. Fond, founded not 

 only on the discoveries of Pallas and 

 others, but on his own observations made 

 on the immense collection of Merck, 

 joined with that of the Landgrave of Hesse 

 Darmstadt, are of the species with douHe 

 horns. An entire body of an animal of 

 this species, still possessing the skin, fat, 

 and muscles, has been dug up near the 

 river Willioni, in the eastern parts of Si- 

 beria, from under a hill, which is covered 

 with ice the greatest part of the year. St. 

 Fond states, in confirmation of the above 

 opinion, that another head obtained by 

 Pallas from Siberia ; one existing in the 

 cabinet of the Elector of Manheim ; and 

 another in the cabinet of Merck, are all 

 apparently similar to the head of the dou- 

 ble horned rhinoceros of Africa. 



This circumstance, so contradictory to 

 the opinion he had formed, of these re- 

 mains of large animals having been 

 brought by floods from the eastern parts 

 of the globe ; and which opinion was 

 confirmed by discovering that no re- 

 mains of the African crocodile had been 

 found in Europe ; led him to further re- 

 search, by which he found reason to sup- 

 pose that, in fact, the rhinoceros, which 

 corresponded with all the fossil remains 

 which he had seen, was the rhinoceros of 

 Sumatra. By ascertaining this circum- 

 stance, the difficulty was removed, since, 

 Sumatra being separated from the penin- 

 sula of India merely by the Straits of Ma- 

 lacca, this animal might also have former- 

 ly existed there. 



Much remains to be ascertained with 

 respect to the fossil remains of elephants, 

 of which considerable numbers have 

 been found in various parts of England, 

 France, Germany, and Italy ; but no 

 where so abundantly as in Siberia. In 

 America indeed the remains of an un- 

 known species of this animal are also very 



