GEOLOGY. 571 



on the contrary, we find a population of colossi belonging 

 to the ancient world. Elephants, mastodons, rhinoceroses, 

 and hippopotami are spread over regions far from where 

 they now live. France itself supported numerous cohorts 

 of them, and they existed in the midst of the ices of 

 Siberia. 



In antediluvian times this latter country was even peo- 

 pled with such herds of elephants and rhinoceroses that 

 travellers say the soil of some islands in the Icy Sea is at 

 present literally packed with their bones. 



Art, which from the remotest epoch has employed so 

 much ivory for ornament and statuary, finds without any 

 search a rich mine of this precious substance in the teeth of 

 the fossil elephants, which abound in these ancient charnel- 

 houses. At present the north of Asia furnishes an enor- 

 mous quantity for commercial purposes. The ivory mines 

 of New Siberia and of the island of Loochoo are so rich in 

 these debris that their soil is absolutely a mass of sand, ice, 

 and elephant tusks. Every time there is a storm the waves 

 throw up a great number of these, some of which weigh as 

 much as 100 kilogrammes (233 Ibs. avoirdupois). 



The richness of these cemeteries in the arctic regions, and 

 the colossal size of the remains which they inclose, surpass 

 everything that can be imagined. The Siberians and Tar- 

 tars are themselves struck with them. One of their myths 

 assigns them to subterranean animals which abhorred the 

 light. In relation to this subject, it is curious to observe 

 that in several very ancient Chinese books mention is also 

 made of these fossil elephants ; for it must be these animals 

 that are referred to. In the " Ly-Ki," a treatise on cere- 



