THE SURFACE OF THE GLOBE. 57 



finding it, or at least in seeking arguments in favour of its existence. 

 Three animals are frequently mentioned by the ancients as having 

 only one horn in front. The oryx of Africa, which has at the same 

 time cloven feet, the hair reversed *, is of great size, equal to the oxf, 

 or even the rhinoceros \, and which it is agreed approaches sheep or 

 goats in form§ ; the ass of the Indies, which is solid footed ; and the 

 monoceros, properly so called, whose feet are sometimes compared 

 with those of a lion ||, sometimes with those of an elephant^[, and con- 

 sequently cloven-footed. The horse** and the unicorn oxen have a 

 mutual relation certainly to the ass of the Indiesff, for the ox is men- 

 tioned as even solid-footed. I ask, if these animals existed as distinct 

 species, shoidd we not at least have their horns in our collections ? 

 And what single horns have we but those of the rhinoceros and the 

 narwal ? 



How, after this, can we refer to the coarse figures traced by savages 

 on the rocks \% ? Ignorant of perspective, and wishing to present in 

 profile the horned antelope, they could only give it one horn, and thus 

 originated the oryx. The oryx of the Egyptian monuments are most 

 probably but the productions of a similarly crude style, which the re- 

 ligion of the country imposed on the artist. Many of the profiles of 

 quadrupeds have only one leg before and one behind ; why then 

 should they show two horns ? It is possible that individual animals 

 might be taken in the chase, whom accident had despoiled of one 

 horn, as it often happens to chamois and the Scythian antelope 

 (saiga) ; and that would suffice to confirm the error which these pic- 

 tures originally produced. It is thus, probably, that we find anew the 

 unicorn in the mountains of Thibet. 



All the ancients, besides, have not reduced the oryx to a single 

 hom ; Oppian§§ expressly gives it several ; and ^Elian mentions some 

 of the oryx who had four || || . Now if this animal were ruminating 

 and cleft-footed, it certainly had the frontal bone divided in two, and 

 could not, according to the accurate remark of Camper, have had a 

 horn on the suture. 



* Arist. Anim. ii, l.iii, 1 ; Plin. xl, 46. 



f Herod, iv, 192. 



X Oppian Cyneg. ii, -vers. 551. 



§ Plin. viii, 53. 



|| Philostorge, iii, 11. 



\ Plin. viii, 21. 



** Oaesicrite, ap. Strab. lib. xv ; ./Elian, Anim. xiii, 42. 



tf Plin. viii, 31. 



XX Barrow, Voyage to the Cape. 



§§ Oppian Cyneg. lib. ii, v, 468 and 471. 



|| || De An. lib. xv, cap. 14. 



