82 The Founders of Geology LECT. 



relics of the frozen north, and Pallas determined to in- 

 vestigate the subject in the fullest detail. He kept his 

 eye open for every trace of fossils of any kind, and one of 

 the most valuable parts of his labours is to be seen in the 

 precision with which he chronicles every fossiliferous 

 locality. But the most astonishing feature of his journeys 

 in this respect was the proofs he obtained of the almost 

 incredible number of bones and tusks of the huge pachy- 

 derms. The whole vast basin of Siberia lying to the east 

 of the Ural mountains and north of the Altai chain to 

 the shores of the Arctic Ocean was found by him to be, as 

 it were, strewn with these remains. He noticed that the 

 bones belonged to species of elephant, rhinoceros and 

 buffalo, and in one case he saw parts of the carcase of a 

 rhinoceros still retaining its leather -like skin and its 

 short hairs. From the abundance of hair on some parts 

 of the skin of these animals, he inferred that the rhino- 

 ceros of Siberia could live in a more temperate climate 

 than its descendants now enjoy. 



But undoubtedly the most important contribution made 

 by Pallas to geological investigation is to be found in his 

 memoir on the formation of mountains and the changes 

 that have taken place on the globe, particularly with 

 regard to the Empire of Kussia. 1 The highest mountains, 

 he remarked, are composed of granite, with various schists, 

 serpentine, grits, and other bedded masses in vertical or 

 highly inclined positions. These formed his Primitive band, 

 and in his opinion were older than the creation of organized 

 beings, for no trace of organic remains was to be found in 

 any part of them. 



1 Act. Acad. Sci. Imp. Pctropolit. 1777, pp. 21-64. 



