278 EXTINCT MONSTERS 



The remains of the Mammoth occur over a very large geo- 

 graphical area fully half the globe. 



By far the most important discovery of a frozen Mammoth is 

 that of a young Eussian Engineer, Benkendorf by name, who 

 was an eye-witness of its resurrection, though, most unfortunately, 

 he was unable either to procure his specimen, as Mr. Adams did, 

 or to make drawings of it. A full account was given in our 

 previous edition, p. 204. 



With regard to the food of the Mammoth, Benkendorf s dis- 

 covery is of great service in solving the question how such a 

 creature could have maintained its existence in so inhospitable 

 and unpromising a country. The presence of fir-spikes in the 

 stomach is sufficient to prove that it fed on vegetation such as is 

 now found at the northern part of the woods as they join the low 

 treeless tundra in which the body lay buried. 



Before this discovery the food of the Mammoth was unknown, 

 and all sorts of theories were devised in order to account for its 

 remains being found so far north. Some thought that the 

 Mammoth lived in temperate regions, and that the carcases were 

 swept down by great floods into higher and colder latitudes. 

 But it would be impossible for the bodies to be hurried along a 

 devious course for so many miles without a good deal of injury, 

 and probably they would fall to pieces on the way. But, as 

 Professor Owen has so convincingly argued, there is no reason 

 why herds of Mammoths should not have obtained a sufficient 

 supply of food in a country like the southern part of Siberia, 

 where trees abound in spite of the fact that during a great part 

 of the year it is covered with snow. And this is his line of 

 reasoning. The molar teeth of the elephant show a highly com- 

 plicated and peculiar structure, and there are no other quad- 

 rupeds that feed to such an extent on the woody fibre of the 



