356 APPENDIX. 



Assuming then on such evidence as I have alluded to, the 

 former high temperature of the arctic circle, and knowing 

 from the investment in ice and preservation of the carcass of 

 the mammoth, that this region was intensely cold at the time 

 immediately succeeding its death, and has so continued to the 

 present hour ; the point on which we are most in want of decisive 

 evidence is the temperature of the climate in which the mam- 

 moth lived. It is in violation of existing analogies to suppose 

 that any extinct elephant or rhinoceros was more tolerant of 

 cold than extinct corallines or turtles ; and as this northern 

 region of the earth seems to have undergone successive 

 changes from heat to cold, so it is probable that the last of 

 these changes was coincident with the extii-pation of the mam- 

 moth. That this last change was sudden is shown by the 

 preservation of the carcass in ice ; had it been gradual, it 

 might have caused the extinction of the mannnoth in the 

 polar regions, but would afford no reason for its equal extir- 

 pation in lower latitudes: but if sudden and violent, and at- 

 tended by a general inundation, the temperature preceding 

 this catastrophe may have been warm, and that immediately 

 succeeding it intensely cold; and the cause producing this 

 change of climate may also have produced an inundation, 

 sufficient to destroy and bury in its ruins the animals which 

 then inhabited the surface of the earth. 



I shall conclude these observations with quoting in his own 

 words the opinions of Cuvier, which have always appeared to 

 me the most correct and most philosophical that have been 

 yet advanced upon this subject.* 



* Tout rend done extremeraent probable que les elephans qui ont fourni 

 les OS fossiles habitoient et vivoient dans les pays ou Ton trouve 

 aujourd'hui leurs ossemens. 



lis n'ont pu y disparoitre que par une revolution qui a fait perir tous 

 les individus existans alors, ou par un changement de climat qui les a em- 

 peche de s'y propager. 



Mais quelle qu'ait e'te cette cause, elle a dt etre subite les os et I'ivoire 

 si parfaitement conserves dans les plaines de la Siberie, ne le sont que par 

 le froid qui les y congele, ou qui en ge'ne'ral arrete Taction des elemens 

 sur eux. Si ce froid n'etoit arrive que par degre's et avec lenteur, ces 

 ossemens, et a plus forte raison les parties molles dont ils sont encore 



