E. MINERALOGY AND GEOLOGY. 89 



springs of naphtha and petroleum oil can be discovered by 

 the knowledge of this hydro-geological law, as he terras it; 

 and, in fact, he claimed the discovery of several such springs 

 in the Carpathian Mountains. 18 A, August 25, 562. 



REMAINS IX THE CAVES OF THE ALTAI. 



Professor Brandt, in a memoir upon the remains of mam- 

 mals discovered in the quaternary formation of the caves in 

 the Altai Mountains, remarks that a great majority of the 

 species belong to forms still living in the same mountains; 

 or, as in the case of the boar and the beaver, exterminated 

 there within a recent period, the total number hitherto deter- 

 mined amounting to about one third of the species of the pres- 

 ent fauna. A few of the remains, however, such as those of the 

 cave hyena, Irish elk, the primitive ox, the fossil rhinoceros, 

 and the mammoth belong to animals of the existence of which 

 in later times there is no historical evidence, not much reli- 

 ance being placed upon an alleged tradition of the Tartars 

 of Southern Siberia in regard to the occurrence of giant ani- 

 mals, with which their ancestors were in the habit of contend- 

 ing. Another animal found in these caves is the horse, of 

 which no wild specimens occur at the present time in Siberia. 

 The bones of this animal seem in rather better preservation, 

 and, consequently, of newer introduction than those of the 

 extinct species just mentioned. A similar condition of pres- 

 ervation attaches to bones of the bison, while those of the 

 primitive ox have lost their organic matter almost in the 

 same proportion as the mammoth and other species. From 

 this Professor Brandt concludes that the primitive ox was 

 exterminated in Asia as well as in Europe earlier than was 

 the case with the bison and the wild horse ; this being due, 

 perhaps, in the case of the ox, to the more palatable nature 

 of its flesh when compared with that of the bison. Finally, 

 our author remarks that, even if the coexistence of man in 

 Siberia and the colossal and extinct animals can not be estab- 

 lished on palaeontological and archaeological data, although 

 indicated perhaps in some obscure sagas, yet we may assume 

 it with tolerable certainty, as we know that he lived in Eu- 

 rope unquestionably at the same time with the mammoth, 

 rhinoceros, Irish elk, bison, and the auerochs, and possibly 

 even emigrated from Asia at the same time with them. 

 Brandt, Melanges biologiques, VII., 434. 



