THE STORY OF THE ELEPHANTS 281 



competition with other herbivorous animals this primaeval giant 

 " went to the wall," as the saying is. Nor does Lyell's appeal to 

 a change in climate, by which the cold of Siberia became too 

 intense even for the Mammoth, seem quite satisfactory, espe- 

 cially when we remember how very far north fir trees range 

 (p. 279). 



The Mammoth, probably, was endowed with a fairly tough 

 constitution. See Plate XLIX. In Siberia it fed on fir trees. In 

 Kentucky it fared better, and was surrounded by such vegetation 



FIG. 108. Figure of the Mammoth, engraved on Mammoth ivory by cave-men 

 of La Madelaine, France. 



as now flourishes in that temperate region. In the valley of the 

 Tiber (where also its remains are found), though during the 

 " Glacial period " the temperature was, doubtless, lower than at 

 present, we cannot imagine that an arctic climate prevailed. Thus 

 we see that it was capable of flourishing in various and widely 

 separated regions where the conditions of climate and food supply 

 could hardly have been similar. 



Professor Boyd Dawkins, whose views we are adopting here, 1 

 considers that the Mammoth was exterminated by man a simple 



1 Popular Science Review, vol. vii. p. 275 (1868). 



