182 WHEN THE WOULD WAS YOUNG 



countries, and when the creatures became tired of eating 

 soft things, they had only to uproot a tree, or tear off one 

 of the branches, and crunch up the wood between their 

 strong teeth. Of course, in African forests, the size of the 

 trees often baffles even the strength of an elephant ; but 

 in northern climates, such as Siberia, few could stand 

 against a mammoth, the weight of whose tusks commonly 

 amounted to 320 lbs. ! 



Now it seems wonderful to us that, after so many ages 

 have passed, we can still find the skeletons of these 

 animals, and, indeed, this can only happen in certain 

 ways. In order to preserve a skeleton or even a whole 

 body, it is absolutely needful that it should be kept 

 shut off from either air or water, or not only its flesh, 

 but its bones, will in time crumble away and vanish. 

 This occurs when the animal dies above ground, or 

 is drowned in some lake or river with a sandy, gravelly 

 bottom ; and in rocks made up of these substances we 

 shall find but few fossils, or traces of plant and animal 

 life. But if the bed of the lake should happen to 

 be made of mud or clay, or something into which 

 neither air nor water can penetrate, the body of the 

 creature which has got stuck in swimming, or has been 

 somehow caught fast and held, will gradually sink down 

 till he is entirely covered. By-and-by the mud which 

 wraps him round will have become solid rock, keeping 

 within it one of the secrets of a world gone by. Peat 

 will also preserve bodies that have fallen into it, to be dug 

 out, ages after, fresh and young, and — in the case of men 

 and women — with even their clothes undecayed ; but one 

 of the most usual means of preservation consists in 

 freezing the bodies, and thus excluding the air. 



The great frozen marshes of the north of Siberia teem 

 with remains of mammoths, which have either died on the 

 spot or been carried down by the floods of the mighty 

 rivers. In warm summers, or during heavy gales, these 

 marshes become thawed or broken up, and sometimes one 



