ANIMALS OF LONG AGO 363 



of the Mammoth are widely distributed in the Northern Hemisphere ; 

 they have been found in Britain, Central Europe, Germany, Russia, 

 Spain, Italy, Greece ; also in Asia, Africa and North America. The 

 range of the animal must have been between the fortieth and the 

 sixtieth degree of latitude, and it may have penetrated as far north 

 as the seventieth degree. To understand its movements we must 

 bear in mind that it thrived in Pleistocene times and lived during 

 the great Glacial Period. It might not be correct to say that it 

 haunted cold regions, but it was certainly equipped to endure a 

 greater degree of cold than its Indian relation, and it did not suffer 

 any great discomfort when cold descended upon it. During the 

 Glacial Period great ice sheets reached from the far north into the 

 very heart of Europe and stretched over North America well into the 

 United States. These ice-sheets did not remain set and motionless, 

 but flowed glacier-like from the heights into the lowlands and finally 

 to the sea, carrying along with them debris from the hills and 

 remains of any living creatures that became imbedded in them. 

 The sheets were often of enormous thickness; perhaps no less than 

 six thousand feet thick in the region of Scandinavia ; upwards of five 

 thousand in Scotland ; but they thinned as they approached the less 

 arctic temperature of the south. In this period of intense cold 

 Northern Europe would be as cold, ice-bound and desolate as North 

 Greenland is now. The temperature was not regular, however. 

 There were alternations of arctic cold and moderate temperature in 

 those southerly regions upon which the ice had descended. The ice 

 receded to the north during the warmer periods, but gained on the 

 south again as the colder temperature returned. When warm times 

 drove the ice northwards, the country it had covered, instead of 

 providing a habitat for hardy, arctic fauna and vegetation, became 

 hospitable to animals and plants delighting in a temperate climate; 

 while the arctic forms receded northwards with the ice. The 

 Mammoth, along with its contemporary the Woolly Rhinoceros, 

 roamed in search of food over a vast territory, and seems not to 

 have been above seeking "fresh fields and pastures new." It 

 followed the retreating ice in interglacial intervals, browsing upon 

 such vegetation as it could find. Its teeth were able to crush, and help 

 in the mastication of, quite tough vegetable fibre such as is developed 

 in the hardy trees of northern regions. If, therefore, the Mammoth 

 found itself bewintered near the glaciers it could maintain itself 

 upon fir-trees which its teeth could easily grind down to pulp ; and 



