XI 



THE ANTARCTIC ISLANDS 



265 



of the land ; moreover, at greater depths, where the bottom of 

 the sea does not freeze, the 

 mud a few feet beneath the 

 top layer might remain even 

 in summer below 3 2°, as is the 

 case on the land with the soil 

 at the depth of a few feet. 

 At still greater depths the 

 temperature of the mud and 

 water would probably not be 

 low enough to preserve the 

 flesh ; and hence, carcasses 

 drifted beyond the shallow 

 parts near an arctic coast, 

 would have only their skele- 

 tons preserved : now in the 

 extreme northern parts of 

 Siberia bones are infinitely 

 numerous, so that even islets 

 are said to be almost com- 

 posed of them ;^ and those 

 islets lie no less than ten 

 degrees of latitude north of 

 the place where Pallas found 

 the frozen rhinoceros. On 

 the other hand, a carcass 

 washed by a flood into a 

 shallow part of the Arctic 

 Sea, would be preserved for 

 an indefinite period, if it were 

 soon afterwards covered with 

 mud sufficiently thick to pre- 

 vent the heat of the summer 

 water penetrating to it ; and 

 if, when the sea-bottom was 

 upraised into land, the cover- 

 ing was sufficiently thick to 

 prevent the heat of the 

 summer air and sun thawing and corrupting it. 



^ Cuvier {Ossemens Fossiles, torn. i. p. 151), from Billing's Voyage. 



FLORA OF MAGELLAN. 



