350 Sir R. I. Murchison on the 



moths' bones occur in mud cliffs, apparently similar to those 

 of the mouths of the Lena, and other great rivers in Northern 

 Siberia. So long as geologists were compelled to argue upon 

 the nature and habits of the mammoth, as if it were similar 

 to an Asiatic elephant, the opinions of such great masters 

 were necessarily dominant. Mr Lyell had, however, the 

 courage to lead the way in taking a new and highly philo- 

 sophic view of the subject, by suggesting, that the peculiar 

 covering of these great mammals rendered them fit inhabit- 

 ants of a northern climate, and that no greater catastrophes 

 were required to account for their destruction, than the gra- 

 dual elevation of large masses of Siberia, which, laying dry 

 the low shores and estuaries into which their bones had 

 been washed, would necessarily render the climate much 

 more intensely cold.* 



But, even if it be admitted that the climate must have 

 been more mild when mammoths lived than at the present 

 day, there still occurred the obvious difficulty, that without 

 some entire change in the nature of its vegetation, of which 

 the surface of Siberia offers no indications, by no possi- 

 bility could a great phyllophagous, or branch-eating animal, 

 like the true elephants (which require rich Asiatic jungles 

 for their sustenance), have lived in a region of fir-trees, birch, 

 willows, and moss. Comparative anatomy and physiology 

 have here, however, fortunately come to the assistance of 

 the geologist ; and in this, as in many other of his darkest 

 paths, have been his surest beacons. Examining and com- 

 paring the composite structure of the very numerous teeth 

 of the mammoth, Professor Owen has ascertained that they 

 possess a peculiarity in the greater portion of the dense 



of Bos Unis, deer and horse. They occur in cliffs of mud and sand, 

 about 90 feet high, which are usually much congealed and frozen. 



* There is no portion of Mr Lyell's speculations upon ancient physi- 

 cal geography which has impressed us with greater respect for his talents, 

 than his view of the adaptation of the mammoths to a residence in the 

 former Siberia ; and we rejoice that the geological evidences we have 

 brought to bear upon the question essentially sustain his inference. See 

 Lyell's Principles of Geology, 4to ed., vol. i., pp. 141, 150, et seq., where 

 the whole question is discussed with reference to Dr Fleming, and other 

 zoologists. 



