36 



In the immediate neighbourhood of the Cape they 

 all live and die together, as they formerly did in 

 Britain ; whilst the hippopotamus is now confined 

 exclusively to Africa, and the elephant, rhinoceros, 

 and hyaena, are also diffused widely over the conti- 

 nent of Asia. He contends also that the animals 

 lived and died in the regions where their remains 

 are now found, and gives an instance of an elephant's 

 carcase, with all its flesh entire, in the ice of Tun- 

 gusia, and its skin partly covered by longhair and 

 wool : and another instance of an hairy rhinoceros 

 found in 1771, in the same country, in the frozen 

 gravel at Vilhoui, having its flesh and skin still per- 

 fect, and of which the head and feet are now preserved 

 at Petersburgh, together with a skeleton of the ele- 

 phant above alluded to, and a large quantity of its 

 wool ; and he observes also, that there are genera 

 of existing animals, which have species adapted to 

 the extremes of both the polar and tropical climes. 

 This gentleman seems inclined to the opinion that 

 the general and recent inundation of the globe made 

 no material change of climate : and observes, if a 

 change of climate has taken place, it took place sud- 

 denly, for how otherwise could the elephant's car- 

 case found entire in the ice at the mouth of the 

 Lena, have been preserved from putrefaction, till 

 it was frozen up with the waters of the then exis- 

 ting ocean. 



It appears that it cannot be proved, that the re- 

 cent inundation of the earth produced a change 

 of climate ; and if animals which now only inhabit 

 ti epical climes, are allowed before the deluge to 



