TEANSACTIONS OP SECTION D. DEPT. ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY. 571 



TUESDAY, AUGUST 20, 1878. 



The following Papers were read : — 



1. The Vertebrata of the Permian Formation of Texas. 

 By Professor Edward D. Cope, F.S.A. 



2. Note on the Genus Holopus. By Sir Wyyille Thomson. 



3. Note on some Deep Sea Badiolarians. By Sir "Wyyille Thomson. 



4. On the gemis Ctenodus (Agassiz). By Dr. R. H. Traquair. 



5. The Mammoth in Siberia. By Henry H. Howorth, F.S.A. 



The existence of the carcases of mammoths and rhinoceroses in Siberia, with their 

 flesh and other soft parts intact, presents a problem which has not been hitherto 

 satisfactorily solved. There are two theories current as to the means by which 

 they came there. One is that they were floated down the great Siberian _ rivers 

 from more tropical countries, and the other that they lived where their remains are 

 now found. The former has now few adherents save perhaps Middendorf. The 

 nature of the rivers ; the fact that it would be impossible for such masses of flesh to 

 float down them for hundreds of miles without being broken to pieces ; the fact that 

 they are found standing upright, that we have specimens of the remains of their 

 food and the outward woolly covering of their bodies, are a few of the facts 

 which conclusively show that they were not floated clown the rivers. The remain- 

 ing alternative which is now almost universally held, that they lived where their 

 remains are found, necessitates another postulate, however. It is quite clear that 

 neither elephant nor rhinoceros could live under the conditions which now prevail 

 on the tundras bordering the Arctic Ocean ; the terrible climate, the absence of trees 

 and the universal covering of snow for a large part of the year makes it clear, d, 

 priori, that there must have been a change of climate in Siberia since they lived, 

 and this is largely supported by the existence of traces of woods, and remains of a 

 more southern vegetation, far to the north of the present limit of trees ; and it seems 

 clear that a temperate climate prevailed all over Siberia when the mammoths lived 



L there. But there is another difficulty, which, so far as the author knew, has not 

 hitherto been noticed. The fact of the flesh of these animals having been preserved 

 intact, proves that they must have been frozen immediately after death, and re- 

 mained frozen ever since. If the ground had thawed even during one summer, 

 they would have decayed and been dissipated. Again, as they were buried iu earth 

 and mud, it is clear that when so buried the ground must have been soft. _ It is 

 impossible to conceive of large masses of flesh being pushed underground if the 

 earth was frozen fast, as it is over all Northern Siberia, from two feet below the 

 surface. It follows, therefore, that the change of climate was sudden, was in fact 

 in the nature of a catastrophe ; and this is supported by the fact of the mammoths 



