62 THE MAMMOTH. 



sist of alternate layers of ice and earthy material, in hori- 

 zontal stratification. At a depth of seventy feet, after 

 having passed through much frozen soil mixed with earth, 

 Middendorf came upon a solid mass of pure transparent 

 ice. In such a region as this a carcass imbedded in ice 

 and frozen mud may be preserved for indefinite ages. 

 When it is disengaged then it is exposed to the ravages 

 of wild beasts, the rays of the sun, and finally may be 

 transported a vast distance by the water and thrown into 

 the Arctic Sea, or else become buried in fluviatile and 

 submarine deposits near the mouths of rivers. An animal 

 might die and fall into a stream, or be drowned, and then 

 transported northward, and at last be frozen into the 

 thick ice. 



