RHINOCEROS T1CHORHINUS. 351 



which I owe to M. le Chevalier de Bril. Certain Ja- 

 koutzki hunting this winter" (1771-2) "near Viloui, 

 found the body of a great unknown beast. The Sieur 

 Ivan-Argounof, Inspector of Zimovia, caused to be trans- 

 mitted to the Prefecture of the province of Jakoutzk the 

 head, a fore-foot, and a hind-foot of the animal, the whole 

 of which were in an excellent state of preservation.* He 

 says in his Memoir, dated the 17th of last January," 

 (1772) "'that they found, in the month of December, 

 the animal dead, and already much decomposed,^ at about 

 forty versts above Zimovie de Vilouiskoe, on the sand of 

 the bank, at the distance of one toise from the water and 

 four toises from another higher and more precipitous es- 

 carpment : it was about half buried in the frozen sand. 

 They took its dimensions on the spot : it was three and 

 three quarters Russian ells ' (aunes de Russie, about 

 eleven and a half English feet) ' in length, and they esti- 

 mated its height at three and a half ells. The body of 

 the animal, still retaining its corpulency, 1 (encore dans 

 toute sa grosseur,) ' was clothed with its skin, which re- 

 sembled leather ; but it was so far decomposed that they 

 were unable to bring away more than the head and the 

 feet. These I saw at Irkoutsk ; they seemed to me, at 

 the first view, to belong to a Rhinoceros, which had been 

 in full vigour. The head, especially, was very recognis- 

 able, because it was covered by its skin. The skin had 

 preserved all its exterior organization, and one could see 

 upon it many short hairs, 1 (on y appercevoit plusieurs poils 



* Pallas, in a more elaborate account of the same discovery which he communi- 

 cated to the Imperial Academy of Sciences at Petersburg, states, " Reliquum vero 

 cadaver, corruptum valde, licet corio naturali adhuc obvolutum, in loco relictum, 

 periit:" Novi Commentarii Petropol., 1773, torn. xvii. p. 587. 



t In his Memoir in the Petersburg Transactions, Pallas observes, " fcetorem 

 spirabant non recens corruptarum carnium, sed latrinis prorsus antiquis compar- 

 andum, quasi ammoniacalem." Loc. cit. p. 589. 



