M. Rouoir on the Traces of Ancient Glaciers. 89 



and its tributaries, the Irtisli, Obi, Yeniasei, Lena, &c. They 

 dispersed themselves throughout these plains, where their re- 

 mains are now found scattered ; but they are most abundant 

 on the shores of the Icy Sea, and at the mouths of the rivers. 

 Now, all those which descended the northern side of the Samo- 

 yede chain, which are connected, without interruption, with 

 the northern part of the Poyas mountains, and all those which 

 descended the eastern side of this northern portion, were 

 placed, as I have stated, between the sides of a small triangle 

 formed by the two chains and the southern side of the gulf of 

 Erouwei, and accumulated, as it were, in the small basin of 

 the river Kara. Such is the cause of a greater number of the 

 remains of mammoths being found in this contracted basin than 

 in any other spot, notwithstanding, or rather in consequence 

 of, its insulated character. 



The peculiarity of these bones being accompanied with large 

 trunks of trees still jwssessinr/ all their branches^ proves that 

 tlie animals with which these are associated have not been de- 

 stroyed by a violent catastrophe, as, for example, great cur- 

 rents of water or mud ; for in that case the trees could not have 

 preserved, at most, more than afewof their larger branches, and 

 in most instances they would have retained none, as we had 

 occasion to observe at the debacle of the Dent-du-midi,in the 

 Valais, in September 1835 ; an occurrence at the same time 

 not comparable to a great catastrophe. This peculiarity, on 

 the contraiy, proves that they have fallen under a slow and 

 gradual change, which has tranquilly destroyed both animals 

 and vegetables. Subsequently, on the melting of the ice, 

 they may, indeed must, have been taken up by the torrents 

 produced by this general melting, but by no means with the 

 violence of a universal deluge. Finall}^ it is scarcely neces- 

 sary to repeat that the perfect preservation of many of these 

 animals is, according to our most eminent naturalists, a cer- 

 tain proof that they must have been seized by the frost imme- 

 diately after their death.' 



We greatly regret that the observations made by M. Robert 

 in Sweden and Norway have not reached us ; we should un- 

 doubtedly have found in them numerous proofs in support of 

 the views we are advocating. 



Since we laid before the Society, in the notice formerly 

 (ilUded to, (.^Ur u]^>inluu$ 911 the probable tfau;»« wf th« uQcieni 



