UNCLE IN ENGLAND. 73 



coarse wool of the same colour. The wool was 

 evidently the same kind of covering that lies 

 next the skin of all the inhabitants of cold cli- 

 mates ; and this very interesting fact proves that 

 the fossil elephants of Siberia were residents of 

 that country, and that they belonged to a race 

 which no longer exists, which was fitted by 

 nature for a rigorous climate, and which could 

 not have endured the sultry regions where those 

 animals are at present found, and where their 

 skin is nearly bare." 



My uncle added that it was impossible to 

 conjecture at what period this elephant had been 

 buried in the ice, but that it was evident he had 

 been frozen at the moment of his death, which 

 sufficiently accounts for the preservation of the 

 flesh. In cold countries it is common to 

 preserve meat through the longest winter by 

 freezing it; and all kinds of provisions are sent 

 at that season from the most remote of the 

 northern provinces, to St. Petersburg!!. 



Gmelin, a German traveller, tried how deep the 

 ground had been thawed by the heat of a whole 

 summer at Jakutsk, in 62 north latitude : he 

 found it soft to the depth of two feet and a half; 

 there it became harder ; and at half a foot 

 lower, it scarcely yielded to the spade. The 

 inhabitants of that place keep their provisions 

 continually frozen in caves which are only six 

 feet below the surface. 



VOL, in. H 



