1 



s 



H I 



J 



Olio 





ilk 



L^ 



We 



I 



. 



itoa 



-an 

 Ponzi 



nena, 



iid in 



ite. 



tli. 

 range 



from 



ed in 



i fine 



the 



feet 

 the 



n 



11 



ed to 



)er ian 



us 



to 



r iiin 







tin 



jd 









Ch. X.] 



AND ITS ASSOCIATES. 



187 



with tlie gramineous character of the food of our fallow-deer, 

 staff or roe, would have assigned a lichen to the reindeer. 5 



mention 



when the climate of 

 Eastern Asia is so much colder than the same parallels of 

 latitude farther west, there are woods not only of fir, but of 

 birch, poplar, and alder, on the banks of the Lena, as far 

 north as latitude 60°.* 



inamm 



differ from those of the living elephants, whether Asiatic or 

 African, having a larger proportion of dense enamel, which 

 may have enabled it to subsist on the coarser ligneous tissues 

 of trees and shrubs. In short, he is of opinion, that the 

 structure of its teeth, as well as the nature of its epidermis 



made it ' a meet companion 



the 



reindeer.' 



It has been suggested, that as, in our 



own times 



northern animals migrate, so the Siberian elephant and 

 rhinoceros may have wandered towards the north in summer. 

 The musk-oxen annually desert their winter quarters in the 

 south, and cross the sea upon the ice, to graze for four 

 months, from May to September, on the rich pasturage of 

 Melville Island, in lat. 75°. The mammoth may in like man- 



b 



warmth 



temp 



75th parallel of latitude, even though the continuous land 

 may not have extended so far. 



If such were the case, the preservation of their bones, or 

 even occasionally of their entire carcasses, in ice or frozen 

 soil, may be accounted for, without resorting to speculations 

 concerning sudden revolutions in the former state and 

 climate of the earth's surface. We seem entitled to assume, 

 that, in the time of the extinct elephant and rhinoceros, the 

 Lowland of Siberia stretched less far towards the north than 

 now ; for we have seen (p. 183) that the strata of this Lowland, 

 in which the fossil bones lie buried, were originally deposited 

 beneath the sea ; and we know, from the facts brought to 

 light in Wrangel's Voyage, in the years 1821, 1822, and 



53. 



* History of British Fossil Mammalia, 1844, p. 261 et seq. 



