56 - THE MAMMOTH. 



the period when they existed the wide and low districts 

 of that sterile region were beneath the sea ; hence the 

 bones and carcasses must have drifted thither, and proba- 

 bly from a considerable distance. 



The climate of Europe was not so rigorous as that of Si- 

 beria when the mammoth flourished as far south as the 

 Pyrenees. During a portion of this time the climate was 

 undoubtedly cold, and again it was warm and pleasant. 

 As regards the climate of the United States at that time, 

 we have no reasons for believing that it was any different 

 from that of the present. It made its appearance in the 

 Pacific States during the latter part of the Pliocene, and 

 no evidence of a great glacial epoch is there. It is proba- 

 ble then that the mammoth did not always have the same 

 heavy coating of hair. 



YI. FOOD. 



The elephant of India lives in noble forests and impene- 

 trable jungles. It would be natural to suppose that all 

 of the different varieties of the elephant family not only 

 required vast quantities of food, but must also live off of 

 the same kind, and dwell where there is a superabundance. 

 An extinct species should not always be judged solely by 

 a living one. The teeth of the mammoth clearly indicate 

 a difference in food, for it had a larger proportion of dense 

 enamel which enabled it to feed on the coarser ligneous 

 tissues of trees and shrubs. Even though its food was 

 different from that of the living species there would be 

 nothing singular or remarkable about it, for the food of the 

 fallow-deer, stag, or roe, is of a granivorous character, 

 while the reindeer, on the other hand, lives upon the 

 lichen. Their food then was of a coarse nature, probably 

 the branches of the fir, birch, poplar, willow, etc Trav- 

 elers tell us that even now on the banks of the Lena, as 

 far north as lat. 69° 5', there are woods of fir, birch, pop- 

 lar, and alder. 



