190 MAN AND THE GLACIAL PERIOD. 



also, there is a resemblance between the plains bordering 

 the glaciated region in central Russia and those which in 

 America border it in the Mississippi Valley. Mr. James 

 G-eikie is of the opinion that the extensive belt of black 

 earth adjoining the glaciated area in Russia, and constitut- 

 ing the most productive agricultural portion of the country, 

 derives its fertility, as does much of the Mississippi Valley, 

 from the blanket of glacial silt spread pretty evenly over it. 

 Thus it would appear that in Europe, as in America, the 

 ice of the Glacial period was a most beneficent agent, pre- 

 paring the face of the earth for the permanent occupation 

 of man. On both continents the seat of empire is in the 

 area once occupied by the advance of the great ice-move- 

 ments of that desolate epoch. 



Asia. 



East of the Urals, in northern Asia, there is no evidence 

 of moving ice upon the land during the Glacial period ; 

 but at Yakutsk, in latitude 62° north, the soil is frozen at 

 the present time to an unknown depth, and many of the 

 Siberian rivers, as they approach and empty into the Arctic 

 Sea, flow between cliffs of perpetual ice or frozen ground. 

 The changes that came over this region during the Glacial 

 period are impressively indicated by the animal remains 

 which have been preserved in these motionless icy cliffs. 

 In the early part of the period herds of mammoth and 

 woolly rhinoceros roamed over the plains of Siberia, and 

 waged an unequal warfare with the slowly converging and 

 destructive forces. The heads and tusks of these animals 

 were so abundant in Siberia that they long supplied all 

 Russia with ivory, besides contributing no small amount 

 for export to other countries. " In 1872 and 1873 as 

 many as 2,770 mammoth-tusks, weighing from 140 to 160 

 pounds each, were entered at the London clocks."* So 



- Prestwich's Geology, vol. ii, p. 460. 



