2 8o EXTINCT MONSTERS 



It is often no easy matter to form conclusions with regard to 

 the habits of extinct animals ; and we must not rely too much 

 on arguments derived from the habits of their living descendants 

 or relatives. The older geologists fell into this mistake, as did 

 even Cuvier. Modern elephants are at present restricted to 

 regions where trees with perennial foliage nourish ; and therefore 

 it was argued that there must have been a change of climate, 

 either gradual or sudden in the country of the mammoth. The 

 late Sir Eichard Owen, however, did not share these views, as the 

 following extract shows : " The fact seems to have been generally 

 overlooked that an animal organised to gain its subsistence 

 from the branches or woody fibre of trees, is thereby rendered 

 independent of the seasons which regulate the development of 

 leaves and fruit; the forest food of such species becomes as 

 perennial as the lichens that flourish beneath the winter snows 

 of Lapland ; and were such a quadruped to be clothed, like the 

 reindeer, with a natural 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 Eeindeer and Musk Ox of the present day, it 

 was capable of existing in high northern latitudes." 1 



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 



1 A History of British Fossil Mammals and Birds, by Richard Owen, 

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



