060 Sir R. I. Murchison on the 



persion of the great races of Mammalia, we may remind onr 

 readers, that in our endeavours to point out the ancient physi- 

 cal geographical features of the Ural Mountains, and the ad- 

 jacent tracts of Siberia, geological proofs have been adduced 

 to shew, that a vast portion of that region having been en- 

 tirely exempt from all oceanic influence during ancient periods 

 of long duration, was thereby eminently qualified to be the 

 residence of such animals during the whole of their existence. 

 It has further been proved, that the production of gold veins, 

 and the elevations of the Ural, which have given to these 

 mountains their present height and relief, are phenomena of 

 a comparatively recent date, — phenomena which, in lowering 

 the temperature of the great region so affected, were, we 

 have little doubt, the chief causes of the final destruction of 

 the mammoths, which, with all their adaptation to existence 

 in northern latitudes, could scarcely be supposed to have been 

 capable of long enduring the want of sustenance incident to 

 Siberian winters of the present period. 



When we turn from the great Siberian continent, which, 

 anterior to its elevation, was their chief abode, and look to 

 other parts of Europe where their remains also occur, how 

 remarkable is it. that we find the number of these creatures 

 to be justly proportionate to the magnitude of the ancient 

 masses of land which the labours of geologists have defined ! 

 Take the British Isles for example, and let all their low 

 recently elevated districts be submerged ; let, in short, Eng- 

 land be viewed as the comparatively small island she was, 

 when the ancient estuary of the Thames, including the plains 

 of Hyde Park, Chelsea, Hounslow, and Uxbridge, were under 

 the waters, — when the Severn extended far into the heart of 

 the kingdom, and large eastern tracts of the island were 

 submerged, and there will then remain but moderate sized 

 feeding grounds for the great quadrupeds whose bones are 

 found in the gravel of the adjacent rivers and estuaries. 

 This limited area of subsistence could necessarily only keep 

 up a small stock of such animals ; and just as we might expect, 

 the remains of British mammoths occur in very small numbers 

 indeed, when compared with those of the great charnel-houses 

 in Siberia, into which their bones had been carried down 



