312 PICTURESQUE SKETCHES 



longer and stiffer than the rest. The hairs also ad- 

 hered to many parts of the skin of the legs, being 

 from one to three lines long, and of a dirty ash-colour; 

 they were much more abundant than is ever seen on 

 the living species. It is not to be inferred, from the 

 thinness of this hairy covering of the legs, that the 

 body was also sparingly clothed, since other wool- 

 covered Arctic animals, as, for instance, the musk- 

 ox, are similarly bare on the extremities. 



The extinct rhinoceros, thus discovered in Siberia, 

 was, like the elephant, widely distributed over the 

 northern hemisphere, at least through the eastern 

 continent, and extended as far as our own island. 

 Its hide was destitute of the folds which characterise 

 that part in the existing one-horned species. One horn, 

 probably the one planted on the bones of the nose, 

 has been found, and is of very large size, measuring 

 nearly three feet in length; and there was probably 

 another behind it, both of them longer and more 

 formidable weapons than are found in any of the 

 known existing species. The head of the extinct 

 animal was also longer in proportion, and terminated 

 by a very strong bony apparatus, well shewn in some 

 of the skulls that have been preserved. 



The teeth of this animal prove that its habits, with 

 regard to food, were not very different from those of 

 the recent species ; and probably those individuals 

 whose remains are found embedded in the Polar ice, 

 were in the habit of migrating from*the south dur- 

 ing the short Arctic summer, and either died from 

 natural causes, or being overtaken by the sudden and 

 intense cold, were prevented from returning. This is 

 the more probable, since, in addition to the animals 



