38 Professor Bronn on sonie Geological and P/it/sical 



and hair in the ice-blocks of the Polar Sea, prove at least 

 that these animals must have been suddenly surprised by the 

 cold, inasmuch as under other circumstances the portions of 

 their body would have been subjected to decomposition ? But 

 the number of perfectly frozen individuals is but small com- 

 pared with the whole amount. The bodies of these few, per- 

 haps the last of their species, could easily have been transport- 

 ed from the localities, for them but partially habitable, by 

 means of floods of impetuous rivers, to the Icy Sea. I will 

 not, however, have recourse to this hypothesis, but will con- 

 fine myself to the peculiar constitution of the country. Sup- 

 posing that such animals were there destroyed by floods, by 

 sinking in marshes, &c., during the summer season, and that 

 they sank in these waters to the greatest depth to which the 

 soil is thawed in the middle of summer, they would suffer but 

 little by being kept at a temperature near the freezing point, 

 under water which in a few weeks was again frozen. I may 

 here notice that, in Great Britain and in North America, not 

 only skeletons of species of deer with gigantic antlers, but 

 also elephants, have been found in such a state of preserva- 

 tion and such a position as to shew plainly that the animals 

 must have sunk in the marshes and moors. If the icy soil 

 was thawed to a gi-eater depth during a succeeding summer, 

 the only consequence would be that they would sink deeper 

 into it, and would thus be more protected from decomposition 

 in the following seasons. Lastly, if, probably in consequence 

 of the very phenomenon which caused their destruction, they 

 were covered with accumulations of sand and mud, which ele- 

 vated the surface of the soil,* the melting point would thus 

 rise in the soil, and the height to which it always remained 

 frozen would increase ; the destroyed animals would thus be 

 for ever protected against decomposition. Thus, then, it is 

 precisely this, at first sight, remarkable fact, which least of all 

 indicates a diminution of temperature, or a sudden and un- 

 usual cooling of the earth's surface. 



* Thus, it appears from authors, that the soil of Siberia consists in many 

 places of alternating layers of ice and frozen sand,— a circumstance which 

 plainly indicates such an occurrence. 



