606 THE UNIVERSE. 



of wliich Aveigli as much as 100 kilogrammes (233 lbs. 

 avoirdupois). 



The richness of these cemeteries in the arctic reojions, 

 and the colossal size of the remains Avhich the)^ inclose, sur- 

 pass everything that can be imagined. The Siberians 

 and Tartars are themselves struck with them. One of 

 their myths assigns them to subterranean animals wliich 

 abhorred the light. In relation to this subject it is curious 

 to observe, that in several very ancient Chinese books men- 

 tion is also made of these fossil elephants, for it must be 

 these animals that are referred to. In the Ly-Kl, a treatise 

 on ceremony written 500 years before the Christian era, it 

 is said that there exists an animal called Tin-Schu, or the 

 mouse, which hides itself, which lives in obscure caves, 

 and is of the size of a buflalo; the least ray of sun or 

 moon light kills it instantly. 



Klaproth relates that a similar fable is met with in 

 Mantchoo manuscripts. It is said there that this colossal 

 mouse attains the size of an elephant! 



Amongst the most remarkaljle discoveries of recent 

 times must be ranked that of one of these elephants of the 

 extreme north, wliich was found by some fishermen in the 

 ice near the mouth of the Lena in 1799. Its flesh, enveloped 

 in a l)lock of ice, had lieen preserved through many thou- 

 sands and perhaps millions of years ! The bears and dogs 

 flocked thither to make an antediluvian repast off it. 

 Ahnost the whole skeleton of this animal was saved, and 

 it may now be seen in the museum of St. Petersburg. 



Tlie human mind, face to face with all these gigantic 

 races, engulfed liy the latest telluric convulsions, turns 

 liack to search amid their remains, striving to penetrate 

 into the cause of these grand disasters. 



At one of the epochs nearest to us, when the whole 



