Habitation and Destruction of the Mammoths. 427 



order in which various beds of sand and clay there succeed to each 

 other, and in which sharks' teeth and palates of fishes also occur. 

 Hence he concludes that the beds in which the bones were found 

 formed the bottom of an argillaceous sea ; and that certain sandy, 

 micaceous materials, in superior beds, were washed down from the 

 mountains. Now, we cannot for a moment suppose that the great 

 naturalist could have been mistaken in the marine character of the 

 fish remains ; but, as he did not visit the spot himself,* there may 

 still be some doubt that the mammoths' bones occur in the very 

 same beds with the fossil wood, sharks' teeth, &c. ; for these, we 

 apprehend, must certainly belong to the tertiary deposits of clay, 

 sand, lignite, and millstone grit, of which we took leave at Kaltche- 

 dansk, and which appear to extend widely into Siberia. That deposit 

 is, we must think, of higher antiquity than the detrital accumula- 

 tions which enclose the mammoths. However this may be, the 

 further the Siberian rivers are followed towards their mouths, the 

 more, we repeat, do the mammalian remains increase,f until at 

 length whole skeletons have been found entire, some with all the 

 flesh and hair adherent. Unwilling, as we always were, to adopt the 

 idea of Cuvier, and other eminent geologists, that entire mammoths, 

 with their skin, were killed and preserved by a sudden change of 

 climate, we now distinctly advocate the views of Lyell and Humboldt, 

 that these creatures were the denizens of countries near to which 

 their bones are found. J 



* Pallas derived his information respecting the order of the beds and the 

 position of the remains at and near Tamakulsk, from Colonel Bibikoff, 

 Director of the Forge Kamensk. (See vol. ii., p. 392, French Edition, 

 1793.) 



f Sujeff, the associate of Pallas, found these mammalian remains in great 

 abundance on the banks of the Obe, near the mouth of the Pittiarski, and 

 150 versts south of Berezof. (Pallas, vol. iv., p. 50.) 



i For some time, the frozen mammoth found by Adams, and deposited 

 in the Imperial Museum at St. Petersburg, was an unique specimen. Since 

 then, two other examples have been reported, and one of these is, we are 

 informed by Mr. Frears, on the point of arriving at the Museum of Moscow. 

 The conservation of the skin is, indeed, not peculiar to the mammoth, but 

 also applies to the Rhinoceros lichorhinusj portions of whose skin and hair 

 are still adherent to the bones of a fine specimen of that animal, preserved in 



