Many reasons have been given, in another place[82], to prove the probability of the existence of the unicorn, since which the following description of two has been met with.

“On the other part of the temple of Mecca are parks or places enclosed, where are seen two unicorns: they are shown to the people as a miracle; and not without good reason, for their rareness and strange nature. One of them, which is much higher than the other, is not much unlike a colt of thirty months of age: in the forehead groweth one horn, in manner right forth, of the length of three cubits. The other is only one year of age, and like a young colt: the horn of this is of the length of four handfuls. This beast is of that colour of a horse called weasel, and hath a head like a hart, but not a long neck, and a thin mane, hanging on one side. Their legs are thin and slender, like a fawn or hind: the hoofs of the fore feet are divided in two, much like the feet of a goat: the outer part of the hinder feet is very full of hair. This beast seemeth wild or fierce, yet tempereth that fierceness with a certain comeliness. These unicorns were given to the Sultan of Mecca as a most precious and rare gift. They were sent him out of Ethiopia by a king of that country, who was desirous by such a present to gratify the Sultan[83].”

So lately as the year 1799, a Mahomedan African prince is said to have sent two of them to Mecca.—(REES’s Cyclopedia, “Monoceros.”) Bell of Antermony describes one which was killed in Siberia, near the Irtish, in 1713. Tamerlane slew unicorns and rhinoceroses on the frontier of Cashmere, (Sherefeddin, b. 4., ch. xxx.) and there have recently been reports of unicorns in Nepaul, which are rendered more probable to be [p363] the truth, by those references of Mr. Bell and Sherefeddin to countries not very distant.

The British king Cuneboline had also the unicorn on his coins, and the figure of the animal is very similar to the above description[84]. The writer is, therefore, of opinion that these now described are the real oryx mentioned by Aristotle, Pliny, and other ancient authors[85].

HIPPOPOTAMUS.

The remains of this beast have been found in England at the residences of the Romans, viz., near London, Colchester, and York; and not any in Ireland or Scotland. They have also been found in Italy mixed with great numbers of the bones of other beasts known to have been exhibited by the Romans. This animal is not known to inhabit any country but Africa. Two were caught near Damietta, A.D. 1600. They are known to inhabit Abyssinia, Bornou, the Cape of Good Hope, Senegal, and they were met with in great abundance by the two vessels, the Sion, of 200 tons, and St. John, of 50 tons, which sailed above nine hundred miles up the river Gambia, A.D. 1620, employed by Sir Wm. St. John[86]. The inference is, that they inhabit the whole of that vast continent, and that it is most probable the number of species is as great as that of elephants; and that the fossil kinds not having been brought from the same country as the living individuals with which they have been compared, has induced naturalists to suppose them extinct. An elaborately grand Roman [p364] pavement was dug up at Roxby, in Lincolnshire, upon which is represented Orpheus, surrounded by an elephant, lion, boar, dog, wolf, stag, and another, which appears to be the hippopotamus[87].

TURTLE. TORTOISE.

“A beautiful fossil sea-turtle has recently been discovered, and, by the perfect substitution of all the organic parts as well as its locality, may be considered an interesting remain of a former world. It is encrusted in a mass of ferruginous limestone, and weighs 180 lbs. The spot on which it was found is in four fathoms of water, and is formed of an extensive stratum of stones, called the Stone Ridge, about four miles off Harwich harbour; and is considered to be the line of conjunction between the opposite cliffs of Walton and Harwich. It is in the possession of Mr. Deck, of Cambridge[88].”

A fossil turtle was found near Harwich, embedded in a solid block of cement-stone; another large stone, when broken, was found to contain “nearly the whole of a human skeleton[89].”

Fossil sea-tortoises have been found in the environs of Brussels, in the environs of Maestricht, at the village of Melsbroeck and in the mountain of St. Peter, in the state of Glaris and in the vicinity of Aix; they differ in species from any of those at present known[90].