450 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



"is confronted "^ith enigmas of the very contrary nature to those 

 ■vrhich the learned men of Europe have striven to unravel. He vainly 

 attempts the solution of the problem of ho-n- to account for the remains 

 of a southern fauna in the ice-bound northern latitudes of his o"vm 

 country, wliilst the latter marvel at the past range of Arctic animals 

 to Southern Europe." 



The brilliant researches of this distinguished Eussian naturalist 

 have been collected together in a memoir on the scientific results of 

 an expedition to the Xew Siberian islands (88). We learn from this 

 interesting Tvork that remains of tlie Saiga antelope, tiger, European 

 bison, mammoth and rhinoceros have been discovered not only in 

 the extreme northern limits of the mainland of Siberia, but even 

 in the Ifesv Siberian Islands, which are situated in the same latitude 

 as the northern part of I^ovaya Zemlya. "It is evident," says- 

 Toherski (p. 451), " that these large animals could only have lived 

 in these extremely northern latitudes under correspondingly favour- 

 able conditions of the vegetation, viz. during the existence of forests, 

 meadows and steppes." 



It is generally assumed, he continues, that the European fauna 

 which was driven south during the Glacial Period, regained gradually 

 their former territory in post-Glacial times. 



If we applied the same principle to Siberia, and if it is assumed 

 that the remains discovered on the New Siberian Islands are of post- 

 Glacial origin, we must also inquire into the causes which produced 

 such remarkable changes of climate in Xorthem Asia within recent 

 times. Or we might, resumes Tcherski, suppose that this migration 

 from the south to the Arctic regions of Siberia, took place in the 

 so-called Interglacial Period. But if such an abnormal amelioration 

 of climate had happened within the Arctic Circle in Northern Asia, it 

 is e-\-ident that similar or even more intense effects, must have been 

 produced in. Europe, which entirely disagrees with the palaeontological 

 data. Moreover, interglacial deposits are wanting almost all over 

 European Kussia, and as there are no indications (p. 462) that Siberia 

 was glaciated during tlie earlier portion of the Glacial Period, it seems 

 all the more unwarranted to conceive such climatic fluctuations. 



Tcherski believes (p. 468) that there is no doubt that the gradual 

 lowering of the temperature, which has been clearly demonstrated \o 

 have occurred in Europe and !North America during later Tertiary 

 times must also have affected Siberia, and as some Siberian forms of 

 life had already made their appearance in Western Europe in pre- 

 Glacial times (Forest-bed), a considerable southward extension of the 



