OF CREATION. 



307 



now found embedded in the sandy cliffs, and are suf- 

 ficiently plentiful to be used as fuel by the inhabi- 

 tants. And although, on digging them up, they ap- 

 pear to have undergone decay, and only emit a glow 

 without distinctly burning, yet they have generally 

 retained their bark, branches, and roots. The first 

 living trees of the same kind are found about 3 

 farther south, but are then only shrubs, and do not 

 attain any considerable magnitude till we reach much 

 warmer climates. 



The bones and tusks are most perfect and are 

 also most abundant in these districts, when obtain- 

 ed from clay hills or black earth, at a depth of a 

 few feet beneath the surface ; and experience has 

 shewn, that the more solid the clay, the better are the 

 bones preserved. It is curious, also, that a greater 

 number are found in elevations near the higher hills 

 than along the low coast, some of those hills which 

 are exceedingly prolific being as much as 200 feet 

 above the sea-level. The sand which contains the 

 fossils is frozen as hard as a rock; but an outside 

 layer occasionally thaws, and this being gradually 

 undermined by the water, causes large fragments 

 (consisting of frozen sand and bone) to break off and 

 fall into the stream. 



The bones and tusks of the elephantine animals 

 thus found are said to be less large and heavy as we 

 advance towards the north, but increase wonderfully 

 in abundance. For about a century the fur hunters 

 have every year brought away large cargoes from the 

 Lachow Islands, but there is as yet no perceptible 

 diminution of the stock. Besides being more plen- 

 tiful, the tusks on the islands are observed to be 



