385 
was found to have its lower edge straiter and thinner than in that of 
the recent animal; the projecting part, too, of the spine of the 
scapula, was extended much further towards the articular termination. 
An atlas, figured by Hoffman, and copied by Cuvier, and which 
must have belonged to some animal of this genus, was compared with 
that of the skeleton, and found to be specifically different. A fossil 
axis (the second vertebra) is also figured by Hollman ; and, like the 
former vertebra, appears, from its proportions, to be a different 
species from the unicorn rhinoceros. A third cervical vertebra is 
also figured by Hollman, corresponding with the preceding vertebrae, 
and, like them, differing in proportions from those of the correspond- 
ing bone in the skeleton of the unicorn. 
From various comparisons of the fossil bones with those of the 
living species, M. Cuvier was able to conclude, that the head of the 
fossil species is not only absolutely much larger, but that it is also 
much larger in proportion to the height of the limbs, and, consequently, 
that the general form of the animal must have been very different 
from that of the living species. 
A large quadruped, then, of a species unknown at the present day, is 
thus found buried, M. Cuvier observes, in numerous parts of Europe 
and Asia ; and one very remarkable circumstance is, that it has not been 
brought from afar ; and another, that it has not been by any slow and in- 
sensible change of the earth, but by some sudden change, that this species 
has ceased to exist. The whole rhinoceros, found with its flesh and skin, 
buried in the ice, on the borders of the Wiluji, evidently demonstrates, 
he thinks, these two propositions. How, he asks, could it have come 
there from the Indies, or from any other warm country, without falling 
to pieces ? How could it have been preserved, if the ice had not in- 
volved it suddenly ; and therefore, how could it have been involved in 
this manner, if the change of climate had been gradual and insensible ? 
The discovery of this animal has furnished us with some facts re- 
specting its external structure. None of those protuberances or 
VOL. hi. 3 d 
