60 
MEMOIR OF CAMPER. 
success. “ How often,” on one occasion he remarks, 
“ have I made you regardless of the asperities of 
winter, while your attention has been rivetted when 
I explained to you the structure of the tortoise, the 
chamois, or some other and still rarer animal.” 
One of these occasions occuiTcd during the long 
continued and severe winter of 1771-2, when Cam- 
per had recently received from the Governor of the 
Cape of Good Hope, the head of a double-horned 
rhinoceros. It had readied him, we may remark, 
at a peculiarly fortunate time ; for many fossil bones 
and heads of this animal had, from time to time, been 
found in Siberia, and had been frequently described, 
whilst no specimen of the animal was contained in 
any of the European cabinets, nor was there any sa- 
tisfactory account of a living one ; in fact, it was sup- 
posed it had become extinct, or was antediluvian. 
Delighted with his valuable present. Camper opened 
his class-room to the inhabitants of Groningen, and 
lectured on the subject, prefacing his instructions 
with a discourse on the delights of Natural History, 
and its connexion with belles lettres and antiquities. 
He then took occasion to congratulate his audience 
on the benefits which their extended commerce con- 
ferred on science. He remarked, that their own 
country, and Europe itself, was too confined for their 
curiosity, and that the four quarters of the globe 
were put under requisition for them. “ Visit,” says 
he, “ our principal towns, and look at the splendid 
museums supplied from every climate under heaven. 
