14 



treeless wastes of the high northern latitudes of North America, 

 and our Arctic voyagers have traced it and lived upon it so lately 

 as 1856. Captain (now Sir Leopold) M'Clintock gives the follow- 

 ing statistics of the Musk-ox in a paper read before the Eoyal 

 Dublin Society, 25th January, 1857 : — Musk-oxen on Melville 

 Island, April 4 and May 13, saw 59 (shot two) ; third visit, July 1 

 to 19, saw 30 (shot two) ; Prince Patrick's Island, May 14 and June 

 26, saw 5 (shot three) — total seen, 94 ; number shot, seven. They 

 were so unused to man's presence that, when one of a herd was shot, 

 it was often difficult to induce the rest of the party to move oft', so 

 as to allow M'Clintock and his men to take possession of their 

 fallen comrade. We cannot help contrasting this brave and noble 

 sailor's conduct with that of the Laird of Lamont. M'Clintock 

 observes, " We never killed more than we absolutely needed." Mr. 

 Lamont, on the contrary, gives a list of walruses and other victims 

 " shot for pastime," and left to render still more desolate with their 

 decaying carcases these northern seas. 



The " Saiga Antelope " deserves a word. It has lately been 

 determined as occurring in the caves of France, with the reindeer, etc. 

 An antelope is recorded as being found fossil, together with several 

 species of deer, beaver, wild boar, etc., in shell-marl beneath peat, 

 near Newbury, in Berkshire, by Dr. J. Collet, F.K.S., in 1757. — 

 (Phil. Trans.) May not this also have been the Saiga antelope ? 

 It is now found to inhabit the eastern slopes of the Ural Mountains, 

 and the shores of the Sea of Azof. On a small island a number 

 were found living, so tame as to be undismayed at a discharge of 

 fire-arms. It is to be seen alive in the Zoological Gardens. It is 

 the only tapir-snouted antelope known. 



Ursus arctos. — The " Brown Bear " occurs both in Britain and 

 Ireland. Undoubted remains from Longford, in Ireland, and Manea 

 Pen, Cambridgeshire, are preserved in the British Museum. It 

 still lives in Eussia. So lately as a.d. 1057 bears were natives of 

 Scotland and Wales, and reckoned among the beasts of the chase, 

 equal to the hare or the boar (Pay, Syn. Quad. p. 214). 



Gulo luscus. — The " Wolverine," or " Glutton " — was once a 

 native of this country, as its remains testify from the caverns of 



