IX.] 
RHINOCEROS FIND. 
411 
mammotli. The hide was 20 to 25 millimetres thick and nearly 
tanned by age^ which ought not to appear wonderful, when we 
consider that, though the mammoth lived in one of the latest 
periods of the history of our globe, hundreds of thousands, per¬ 
haps millions of years have, however, passed since the animal 
died to which these pieces of skin once belonged. It was clear 
that they had been washed by the neighbouring river Mesenkin 
out of the tundra-bank, but I endeavoured, without success, to 
discover the original locality, which was probably already con¬ 
cealed by river mud. In the neighbourhood was found a very 
fine cranium of the musk ox. 
A new and important find was made in 1877 on a tributary 
of the Lena, in the circle Werchojansk, in 69° N.L. For there 
was found there an exceedingly well preserved carcase of a 
rhinoceros {Rhinoceros Merchii^ Jaeg.), a different species from 
the Wilui rhinoceros examined by Pallas. However, before the 
carcase was washed away by the river, there had only been 
removed the hair-covered head and one foot.^ Prom the find 
Schrenck draws the conclusion that this rhinoceros belonged to 
a high-northern species, adapted to a cold climate, and living in, 
or at least occasionally wandering to, the regions where the 
carcase was found. There the mean temperature of the year 
is now very low,^ the winter exceedingly cold (~ 63°'2 has been 
registered) and the short summer exceedingly warm. Nowhere 
^ The find is described by Herr Czersky in the Transactions published by 
the East Siberian division of the St. Petersburg Geographical Society; and 
subsequently by Dr. Leopold von Schrenck in Mem. de VAcad. de St. Peters- 
bourg, Ser. Vll. T. XXVIL No. 7, 1880. 
^ The mean temperature of the different months is shown in the following 
table:— 
Jan. 
— 48°-9 
Feb. 
— 47°-2 
March 
— 33°-9 
April 
~14°-0 
May 
— 0°-40 
June 
+ 13°-4 
Of the Year. 
—16°-7 
July. 
+ 15° 4 
Auu. 
+ ir-9 
Sept. 
+ 2°-3 
Oct. 
—13°-9 
Nov. 
— 39°-l 
Dec. 
— 45°-r 
