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,-f 

 " 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, torn. iv. p. 156. 

 t ' Fauna Boreali- Americana, Mammalia,' p. 276. 



