14 



have before observed, have been ever found 

 farther south than the salines of the Holston, 

 and they have been found as far north as the 

 arctic circle. Those^ therefore, who are of 

 opinion, that the elephant and mammoth are 

 the same, must believe, 1^/, that the elephant 

 known to us can exist and multiply in the fro- 

 zen zone ; or, ^dli/^ that an internal fire may 

 once have warmed those regions, and since 

 abandoned them ; of which, however, the globe 

 exhibits no unequivocal indications: or, Sdl]/. that 

 theobliquityofthe ecliptic, when these elephants 

 lived, was so great as to include within the 

 tropics all those regions in which the bones are 

 found : the tropics being, as is before observed, 

 the natural limits of habitation for the elephant. 

 But if it be admitted that this obliquity has 

 really decreased, and we adopt the highest rate 

 of decrease yet pretended, that is, of one mi- 

 nute in a century — to transfer the northern tro- 

 ' pic to the arctic circle would carry the exis- 

 tence of these supposed elephants 2.50,000 

 years back ; a period far beyond the conteption 

 of the duration of animal bones left exposed 

 to the open air, as these are in many instances. 

 Besides, though these regions would then be 

 supposed within the tropics, yet their winters 



