312 H. a. Hoicorth — Sudden Extinction of the Mammoth. 



Again, speaking of the crops sown about Yakutsk, he says : — 

 " Summer wheat and rye are sown by the Eussians in the neighbour- 

 hood of the towns. These fields are at that time thawed to a depth 

 of three feet ; they rest on perpetually frozen strata, etc." {id. vol. ii. 

 p. 370). The Yakuts, it is well known, take advantage of this condition 

 of the ground, and by merely digging pits in it they form at once 

 permanent ice-houses or meat-safes. This state of things is not 

 limited to the valley of the Lena, but is found all over Northern 

 Siberia where the bodies of Mammoths occur. Thus we read of 

 the tundras about the Obi that their soil is always frozen, not even 

 in the middle of summer thawing beyond 13 inches in depth 

 (Wrangell's Voyage, tr. by Sabine, p. lii). 



Similarly, Wrangell describes the soil a few inches below the 

 surface as perpetually frozen at the other end of the continent, in 

 the neighbourhood of Kolymsk and the peninsula of Chukchi {op. cit. 

 pp. 39. 50-51, 276). While speaking of the cliff facing the Polar 

 Sea, he says : — " It consists in great measure of ice which never 

 thaws, mixed with a little black earth and clay, amongst which are 

 a few long thin roots of trees." He speaks of another part of the 

 coast as consisting of ice, clay and black earth, out of which he drew 

 some of the interspersed roots, and found them chiefly birch, and 

 as fresh as if just severed from the trees, the nearest woods being 

 100 versts off {id. pp. 223-224). I have quoted these supporting 

 facts, but it was hardly necessary. The very distinguished writer 

 against whose conclusions this paper is really directed, " Our father 

 Pernienides," Sir Charles Lyell, admits so much without question. 

 " It is certain," he says, " that from the moment when the carcases 

 both of the Khinoceros and the Elephant above described were buried 

 in Siberia in lat. 64° and 70"^ N., the soil must have remained frozen, 

 and the atmosphere as cold as at this day " (Principles of Geology, 

 vol. i. p. 183). Again, " One thing is clear, that the ice or congealed 

 mud in which the bodies of such quadrupeds were enveloped has 

 never once been melted since the day when they perished, so as to 

 allow the free percolation of water through the matrix ; for had this 

 been the case, the soft parts of the animals could not have remained 

 imdecomposed " {id. p. 184). 



So far then we may take it there is no dispute, and the matter may 

 be treated as " res judicata." 



At this point, however, we claim leave to completely diverge from 

 the current opinion in England. We should do so with greater 

 anxiety if, after we had reached our conclusion by an independent 

 induction, we had not found that it was the deliberate view to which 

 Cuvier and Buckland long ago came, and which has been more 

 recently urged by such an experienced geologist as M. d'Archiac. 



We have shown at some length in a previous paper that the 

 Mammoth and his companions could not live under the conditions 

 which now prevail in Northern Siberia. This is frankly admitted 

 by Lyell. He says, " It would, doubtless, be impossible for herds 

 of Mammoths and Rhinoceroses to subsist at present throughout the 

 year even in the southern part of Siberia, covered as it is with snow 



