302 PICTURESQUE SKETCHES 



may sometimes be presented for the examination of 

 the naturalist, and offers an admirable opportunity 

 for making out all the peculiarities of structure. We 

 shall see, hereafter, that, if such magnificent examples 

 are not found in the deposits of northern India, it is 

 rather owing to the condition of the beds in which 

 fossils are preserved than from any want of abun- 

 dance and variety in the species. 



The elephant has been mentioned as the companion 

 of the Mastodon in Europe during the middle tertiary 

 period, but the animals of this kind were also accom- 

 panied by a vast multitude of others, whose remains 

 have been chiefly found in the beds of the valley of 

 the Upper Rhine between Mayence and Bale. Dur- 

 ing the period thus represented, and while a portion 

 of the " crag" on the eastern coast of England was 

 being gradually added to the tertiary accumulations 

 of our island, a gradual elevation was taking place 

 in most parts of central Europe, in northern Asia, and 

 in North America, modifying the form of the land 

 in the northern hemisphere, impressing upon it those 

 peculiar characters which it now presents, altering 

 also the climate, and rendering it more excessive. 

 Up to this time, however, the Arctic ice had proba- 

 bly nowhere extended beyond the Arctic Circle, and 

 was perhaps limited to a range far within that area. 

 Beyond the 70th or 75th parallel of north latitude 

 the warm summers then seem to have so far prepon- 

 derated over the cold of winter as to allow of the 

 presence of vegetation in spots which are at present 

 bare and desolate, the frozen soil now yielding only a 

 few lichens, and vegetable life being often limited to 

 the little blood-like particles spotting the surface of 

 the snow. 



