THE MAMMOTH. 213 



garment capable of resisting the rigours of an arctic winter, its 

 adaptation for such a climate would be complete. . . . The 

 wonderful and unlooked-for discovery of an entire Mammoth, 

 demonstrating the arctic character of its natural clothing, has, 

 however, confirmed the deductions which might have been 

 legitimately founded upon the localities of its most abundant 

 remains, as well as upon the structure of its teeth, viz. that, like 

 the Reindeer and Musk Ox of the present day, it was capable of 

 existing in high northern latitudes," ^ 



The problem of the extinction of the Mammoth is not an easy 

 one to solve. We can hardly account for its disappearance by 

 calling in geographical changes by which its range became 

 restricted, and its food supply diminished, so that in the com- 

 petition with other herbivorous animals this primaeval giant 

 "went to the wall," as the saying is. Nor does Lyell's appeal to 

 a change in climate, by which the cold of Siberia became too 

 intense even for the Mammoth, seem quite satisfactory, espe- 

 cially when we remember how very far north fir trees range 

 (p. 211). 



The Mammoth, probably, was endowed with a fairly tough 

 constitution. In Siberia it fed on fir trees. In Kentucky it 

 fared better, and was surrounded by such vegetation as now 

 flourishes in that temperate region. In the valley of the Tiber 

 (where also its remains are found), though during the " Glacial 

 period " the temperature was, doubtless, lower than at present, 

 we cannot imagine that an arctic climate prevailed. Thus we 

 see that it was capable of flourishing in various and widely 

 separated regions where the conditions of climate and food supply 

 could hardly have been similar. 



Professor Boyd Dawkins, whose views we are adopting here,^ 

 considers that the Mammoth was exterminated by man — a simple 



' A History of British Fossil Mammals and Binis, by Richard Owen, 

 F.R.S., etc. London, 1846. 



* Poptlar Science Beviexv , vol. vii. p. 275 (l{ 



