ANCIENT GLACIERS IN EASTERN HEMISPHERE. 191 



perfectly have the carcasses of these extinct animals been 

 preserved in the frozen soil of northern Siberia that when, 

 after the lapse of thousands of years, floods have washed 

 them out from the frozen cliffs, dogs and wolves and bears 

 have fed upon their flesh with avidity. In some instances 

 even " portions of the food of these animals were found in 

 the cavities of the teeth. Microscopic examination showed 

 that they fed upon the leaves and shoots of the coniferous 

 trees which then clothed the plains of Siberia/' A skele- 

 ton and parts of the skin, and some of the softer portions 

 of the body of a mammoth, discovered in 1799 in the 

 frozen cliff near the mouth of the Lena, was carried to 

 St. Petersburg in 1806, from which it was ascertained that 

 this huge animal was " covered with alight-coloured, curly, 

 very thick-set hair one to two inches in length, inter- 

 spersed with darker-colored hair and bristles from four to 

 eighteen inches long." * 



In the valleys of Sikkim and eastern Nepaul, in 

 northern India, glaciers formerly extended 6,000 feet 

 lower than now, or to about the 5,000-foot level, and in 

 the western Himalayas to a still lower level. The higher 

 ranges of mountains in other portions of Asia also show 

 many signs of former glaciation. This is specially true 

 of the Caucasus, where the ancient glaciers were of vast 

 extent. According, also, to Sir Joseph Hooker, the cedars 

 of Lebanon flourish upon an ancient moraine. Of the 

 glacial phenomena in other portions of Asia little is known. 



Africa. 



Northern and even central Africa must likewise come 

 in for their share of attention. The Atlas Mountains, ris- 

 ing to a height of 13,000 feet, though supporting none at 

 the present time, formerly sustained glaciers of consider- 

 able size. Moraines are found in several places as low as 



* Prestwiclrs Geology, vol. ii, p. 460. 



