24 INTRODUCTION. 



the year 1799, actual obsveration established the truth of 

 these conjectures, by the discovery of an entire north- 

 ern elephant imbedded in ice at the mouth of the river 

 Lena, in Siberia. It would have been easy to argue 

 that an entire elephant, from the warmer parts of Asia, 

 could not possibly have been conveyed to the mouth of 

 the Lena by any deluge ; because, whether it had come 

 across the lofty mountains and the Table-land, or by 

 the more circuitous way of the sea, it must have been 

 dashed to pieces, and the soft parts decomposed by 

 maceration in water, before half the journey was 

 accomplished. But there was no need of arguing ; for 

 the covering of the animal was not a defence against 

 heat, like the naked dark skin of the tropical elephant, 

 but a defence against cold. It was covered with three 

 kinds of hair : one, black bristles, about eighteen inches 

 long ; another, brown hair, about four inches in length ; 

 and the third, close, reddish wool, not above an inch 

 long. This being the very winter-clothing of animals 

 of the cold countries, left not a doubt that this indi- 

 vidual kind inhabited Siberia ; and if that was the case, 

 those of England, North America, and all the other 

 countries where their remains are found, must have 

 done the same. The elephant of the Lena was a large 

 animal, sixteen feet four inches long, and nine feet four 

 inches high ; the tusks measured nine feet and a half 

 .along the curve, and weighed three hundred and sixty 

 pounds. The head and tusks together weighed nearly 

 eight hundred pounds. From this we can see that 

 nature needs no violence, no general suspension of her 

 operations or order, to effect the extermination even of 

 the most powerful of her productions, when their pur- 



