H. S. Howorth — The Mammoth in Europe. 199 



the same in both areas, and that the problem which has to be solved 

 is virtually the same in both. 



It is true that in Siberia we find carcases of the Mammoth 

 remaining with their flesh intact, a circumstance which is not known 

 in Europe ; but this is entirely due to the fact that the ground in no 

 part of Europe which has been sufficiently explored is frozen all 

 the year round, so as to enable the soft parts of the Mammoth to 

 be preserved. The country east of the White Sea, and between it 

 and the great gulf of the Obi, may very possibly satisfy this con- 

 dition ; but it is virtually a terra incognita in regard to its geology, 

 and it is only recently that its superficial aspects have been examined 

 with any attention. Elsewhere in Europe, the ground in summer is 

 not permanently frozen, and it therefore cannot preserve what is so 

 subject to rapid decay as the flesh of animals. But, although we 

 have not the flesh itself, we have what is equivalent to it for our 

 purpose, namely, the preservation of skeletons, with their various 

 bones remaining in position, and under circumstances which make 

 it clear that when buried they were clothed with flesh, just as the 

 bodies in Northern Siberia were, and that it is only an absence of 

 the requisite cold which has interfered with their complete preserva- 

 tion. We find in Europe what we find in Central Siberia. There 

 also the cold is not sufficient, and in consequence we have in that 

 area no bodies with their flesh, but only skeletons. Such an one 

 was that found by Messerschmidt on the river Tom, south of Tomsk, 

 and referred to by Strahlenberg, and another referred to by the 

 same author, found near Lake Tzana, between Tara and Tomskoi, 

 which, from his account, still retained its articulations (Strahlen- 

 berg, p. 401). .^ . , , 



To most of us it is difficult to realize how purely artificial the 

 terms Europe and Asia are. How they correspond to nothing, either 

 in historical or physical geography. The Ural mountains form no 

 frontier that has been of the slightest interest in history, while as 

 a physical formation they are of even less importance. Their 

 moderate height and frequent passes have formed no barriers, either 

 botanical or zoological, and the country with its living fades is 

 practically the same on both sides of the chain. It is not a mere 

 figure of speech b}'- which my friend Mr. Seebohm, in describing his 

 recent journey to the Petschora, calls that area " Siberia in Europe." 

 Siberia, as a physical province, really begins with the great Polish 

 plain, and includes the monotonous levels of European Russia. 

 This being so, it is not remarkable that we should find in European 

 Eussia, skeletons of Mammoths occurring under similar conditions 

 to those of Siberia, and equivalent, as we have seen, if the conditions 

 of climate were the same, to the occurrence of bodies with their 

 flesh intact. The most important of these, and the one of whose 

 discovery we have the greatest , details, was found about the year 

 1846, near Moscow. The skeleton was found at Troitzkoe, not far 

 from Khoroschowo, in the bed of a dried-up stream, which must 

 once have fallen into the river Moskwa. It was described by Prof. 

 Charles Kouillier, the then Secretary of the Imperial Society of 



