THE MAMMOTH, sir 



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

 plicated and peculiar structure, and there are no other quadrupeds 

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

 of trees. Many mammals, as we know, eat the leaves of trees ; 

 some gnaw the bark ; but elephants alone tear down and crunch 

 the branches. One would think there was but little nourishment 

 to be got from such. But the hard vertical plates of their huge 

 grinders enable them to pound up the tough vegetable tissue and 

 render it more or less palatable. Of course, the foliage is the most 

 tempting, but where foliage is scarce something more is required. 



Now, in the teeth of the Mammoth the same principle of 

 construction is observed, only with greater complexity, for there 

 are more of these grinding plates and a larger proportion of 

 dense enamel. Hence the inference seems unmistakable that 

 the extinct species fed more largely on woody fibre than does the 

 elephant of to-day. Forests of hardy trees and shrubs still grow 

 upon the frozen soil of Siberia, and skirt the banks of the Lena 

 as far north as the sixtieth parallel of latitude. 



If the Mammoth flourished in temperate latitudes only, as 

 formerly suggested, then its thick shaggy coat becomes super- 

 fluous and meaningless ; but if it lived in the region where its 

 body has been found, then the argument from its teeth, and the 

 fir-spikes found in its stomach, is confirmed by the nature of its 

 skin, and all the old difficulties vanish. Professor Owen con- 

 siders that we may safely infer that, if living at the present day, 

 it would find a sufficient supply of food at all seasons of the year 

 in the sixtieth parallel, and even higher. Perhaps they migrated 

 north during the summer ; and, judging from the present limits of 

 arboreal vegetation, they may have been able to subsist even in 

 latitude 70 north, for at the extreme points of Lapland pines 

 attain a height of sixty feet. 1 



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



1 Sir Henry Howorth, in his Mammoth and the Flood, suggests another 

 theory, and gives some valuable information. 



