H. H. Howorth — A Great Post-GIacial Flood. 79 



If we turn from the stratigraphical considerations to the paleeonto- 

 logical ones, we shall have the same consistent stovy to tell. The 

 occurrence of skeletons of Mammals in the Loess of Germany as we 

 have described, and of huge deposits or caches as at Cannstadt, show 

 that the conditions of their deposit were the same as those in Siberia. 

 If the animals had died naturally, their remains would have decayed 

 away on the surface and been weathered and scattered. The only 

 condition on which the bones could be preserved in skeletons is that 

 they must have been covered up soon after death not witli a super- 

 ficial layer of mud, but with a substantial covering, and this could 

 only be by the Loess having been swept over the bones in large 

 quantities by some diluvial movement. As a matter of fact, these 

 bones are always found buried in the Loess, and not on its surface. 



The wave of water and of mud in sweeping along would no doubt 

 have a considerable denuding influence upon the beds of sand and 

 clay which underlie the Loess in many places, and which, in my 

 view, are the exact and corresponding equivalents of the diluvium of 

 the French writers, and which I take to be the remains of the old 

 land surface on which the Mammoth lived. It would take up a con- 

 siderable quantity of the contents of this surface deposit and incor- 

 porate it with itself. Thus it comes about that some of the bones 

 found in the Loess are much decomposed, " which, says Dr. Hibbert- 

 Ware, creates a suspicion that this might have been their state before 

 they became entangled in the Loess " [op. cit. p. 203). The 

 skeletons of man and the other animals, the great hecatombs of 

 bones, and the debris of dicotyledonous plants, etc. ; — these no doubt 

 represent the actual living inhabitants of the district where the great 

 overflow of waters took place, and were destroyed by one over- 

 w^helming blow. We have singular cases on a smaller scale with 

 which to compare what must in fact have happened. Thus, a 

 famous eruption of mud took place from one of the volcanos 

 in Java in 1822. Of the efi"ects of this eruption Lyell says: "A 

 space of twenty-four miles between the mountains and the River 

 Tandoi was covered to such a depth with bluish mud that people 

 were buried in their houses, and not a trace of the numerous villages 

 and plantations throughout that extent was visible. Witliin this space 

 tJie bodies of those loho perished were buried in imid and concealed, bid 

 near the limits of the volcanic action they loere exposed and strewn over 



the ground in great numbers, partly boiled and partly burnt ; 



The day after the eruption the rain fell in torrents, and the rivers,/ 

 densely charged with mud, deluged the country far and wide. . . . 

 The first intimation the inhabitants of Bandory received of this 

 calamity was the news that the River Wulna loas hea.ring doion into 

 the sea the dead bodies of men, and the carcases of stags, rhinoceroses, 

 tigers, and other animals'' (Lj'^ell's Principles vol. ii. p. 58). This 

 is surely a very graphic parallel to what must have taken place on a 

 great scale when the Mammoth perished finally. In conclusion, 

 I propose to quote a passage in support of my main contention from 

 one with whom I differ greatly in other respects. 



Thus, Mr. Belt is at one with me in regard to the critical fact that 



