12 ELEPHANTS, RECENT AND EXTINCT. 



naturally inferred that elephants were creatures suited 

 solely to tropical or sub-tropical climates. The discovery 

 of frozen carcases of the mammoth a species- closely 

 related to the Indian elephant in the Siberian "tundras " 

 shows, however, that this animal was suited to dwell in at 

 least comparatively cold regions, although it is probable 

 that the climate of Siberia was formerly not so rigorous 

 as at present. To withstand the cold of these northern 

 regions, the mammoth was protected by a coat of long 

 reddish hair, beneath which was a shorter covering par- 

 taking more of the nature of wool. Along the borders 

 of the Arctic Ocean for hundreds of miles mammoth 

 remains are met with in incredible quantities ; and it is 

 still one of the puzzles of geology to account adequately 

 and satisfactorily for the manner in which these creatures 

 perished, and how their bodies were buried beneath the 

 frozen soil before decomposition had begun its work, for 

 it is hardly possible to believe that they lived in a climate 

 so rigorous that their bodies would have been frozen on 

 the surface of the ground immediately after death. 



Another rude shock to our common ideas of elephantine 

 nature is afforded by the extinct elephants of Malta, 

 which show us that gigantic size is not a necessary 

 concomitant of the group ; and that when the area in 

 which a species dwelt was small, the size of the species 

 itself was proportionately reduced. These little Maltese 

 elephants were very closely allied to the living African 

 species, but whereas " Jumbo" attained eleven feet in 

 height, and wild specimens of the African elephant may 

 be still larger, the smallest of the Maltese species was 

 scarcely taller than a donkey. So small, indeed, are the 

 bones and teeth of this species exhibited in the Natural 

 History Museum, that it is sometimes difficult to convince 

 people that they really belong to elephants at all. 



As regards their distribution, elephants and mastodons 

 formerly roamed over the whole world with the exception 

 of Australia; true elephants ranging over. the whole of 

 the Northern Hemisphere, while mastodons extended as 

 far south in the New World as the confines of Patagonia. 

 It is in the north-east of India, Burma, and the islands of 



