H. S. Howorth — Elevation of American Cordillera. 445 



in the world, but tliat it only dates in its main features from that 

 period of cataclysmic revolution in physical geography which closed 

 the Mammoth age, and that it was not existing at the time of the 

 so-called Glacial period. 



This position may be supported, as similar evidence can be 

 supported in the case of the tJrals and other ranges. In the first 

 place, it is a curious proof that the Eocky Mountains are very recent, 

 that \h.ej do not constitute a real zoological boundary. On this 

 subject I cannot quote a better authority than Mr. Murray, who, in 

 his Geographical Distribution of Mammals, p. 313, saj^s, "We 

 should expect the Eocky Mountain range to form the chief longi- 

 tudinal line of separation, but, as already said, it only separates 

 species in a minor degree. The actual mountain barrier appears to 

 be the Cascade Eange on the west side of the Eocky Mountains, 

 separating Oregon and California from the rest of North America ; 

 and the dividing limit between the two other regions seems to be 

 the Nebraska country, on which lie the Mauvaises Terres and 

 Nebraska, and Niobrara beds on this^side of the Eocky Mountains — 

 the line of separation, in fact, being marked by the site of the 

 ancient Tertiary sea in which these beds had been deposited." 



In the first place, it is a remarkable fact that the remains of the 

 South American Mastodon of precisely the same species should have 

 been found on both sides of the Cordillera of the Andes. It is 

 incredible that an animal of the type of the Mastodon, which, as we 

 know, fed on trees, should have traversed the high range over which 

 the Alpaca and Vicuna can hardly pass. In North America the 

 same fact presents itself, and we have remains of the Mastodon 

 occurring in California and in Oregon, on the western side of the 

 Eocky Mountains, as on the plains east of that range. This seems 

 to me to be very strong evidence that the Cordillera was not 

 existing in the Mammoth age to act as a zoological frontier. 



Again, it was long ago observed by Humboldt that remains of the 

 same animal occur on the high plateau of Quito and elsewhere at 

 a tremendous elevation in South America, while the Mammoth left 

 its bones on the high plateau of Mexico, thus off'ering a parallel 

 to the remains from Hiundes in Tibet. 



I will quote one or two instances in support of this contention. 

 Inter alia, Humboldt discovered a large number of Mastodon remains 

 in the so-called Giants' Camp at Santa Fe de Bogota, in Peru, at a 

 height of 1300 toises {i.e. 2600 metres) above the sea (id. p. 264). 

 He found similar remains near the volcano of Imbaburra in the 

 kingdom of Quito, also in Peru, at a height of 1200 toises 

 {i.e. 2400 metres) {id. p. 266). Others again at Chiquitos, near 

 Santa Cruz de la Sierra, in 18° S. lat. and almost in the centre of 

 South America. On the west of the Cordillera J. de Jussieu reports 

 a great deposit of these bones in the valley of Tarifa at a 

 distance of more than 130 leagues from the sea, and 200 from 

 Potosi, while Humboldt sent one to Cuvier from Conception do 

 Chili in 37° S. lat. {id. p. 267). Darwin also found remains of the 

 Mastodon at Santa Fe, and speaks of their occurring up to the 

 snow-line. 



