Notices of New Books. 4377 



willows or large trees may have ranged as far North, at least in the 

 summer, as the moose deer does now, or up to the 70th parallel ; and 

 lichenivorous or herbivorous ruminants may have extended their 

 spring migrations still further North ; — these journeys in quest of 

 seclusion and more agreeable food being quite compatible with the 

 co-existence of vast wandering herds of the same species in more 

 southern lands, reaching even beyond the limits over which the drift 

 has been traced, and where the final extinction of the entire races 

 may be owing to causes operating in comparatively recent periods. 



" The St. Petersburgh c Transactions,' and other works, contain ac- 

 counts of the circumstances attending the discovery of the entire car- 

 cases of a rhinoceros and of two mammoths in Arctic Siberia; and 

 one cannot avoid regretting that they were beyond the reach of com- 

 petent naturalists, who might, by examining the contents of the sto- 

 mach, the feet, external coverings, and other important parts, have 

 revealed to us much of the habits of these ancient animals, and of the 

 nature of the country in which they lived. The inexhaustible depo- 

 sits of organic remains in the Kotelnoi, or New Siberian Archipelago 

 lying off the Sviatoi Noss, may yet disclose some equally perfect car- 

 cases; and their exploration by a scientific expedition is a project 

 that promises a rich return for the labour and expense of such an 

 undertaking. 



" In Arctic America, such remains have been discovered in its 

 north-eastern corner alone ; and, as yet, bones, horns and hair have 

 only been obtained, without any fresh muscular fibre : but all the col- 

 lectors describe the soil from which they were dug, as exhaling a 

 strong and disagreeable odour of decomposing animal matter, resem- 

 bling that of a well-filled cemetery. In August, 1816, Kotzebue, 

 Charaisso, and Eschscholtz discovered, in the bay which now bears 

 the name of the last-mentioned naturalist, some remarkable cliffs, 

 situated a short way southwards of the Arctic Circle, and abounding 

 in the bones of mammoths, horses, oxen and deers. The cliffs were 

 described by their discoverers as pure icebergs one hundred feet high, 

 and covered with soil, on which the ordinary arctic vegetation flou- 

 rished. These novel circumstances excited strongly the attention of 

 the scientific world; and when Captain Beechey and his accomplished 

 surgeon, Collie, ten years later, visited the same place, their best ef- 

 forts were made to ascertain the true nature of the phenomenon. Dr. 

 Buckland drew up an account of the fossil remains then procured, 

 with illustrative plates, and Captain Beechey published a plan of the 

 locality. 



