428 Sir R. I. Murchison on the 



The single fact of the very wide diffusion of mammoth bones over 

 the surface of such enormous regions of the earth, would in itself 

 lead us to believe, that those creatures had really been long inhabi- 

 tants of such countries, living and dying there for ages, whilst their 

 final destruction may have resulted from aqueous debacles dependent 

 on oscillations of the land, the elevation of ridges, and the formation 

 of much local detritus. In the case of the extinct species of carni- 

 vora, it has been happily and successfully shewn by Dr. Buckland, 

 that for long ages they inhabited the caves of the British Islands. 

 Again, in low tracts of Yorkshire, where tranquil lacustrine deposits 

 have occurred, there bones (even those of the lion) have been found 

 so perfectly unbroken and unworn in the fine gravel in which they 

 are heaped up (as at Market Weighton),* that few persons would be 

 disposed to deny, that such feline, and other animals, once roamed 

 over the British Isles, as well as other European countries. Why, 

 then, is it improbable, that large elephants, with a peculiarly thick 

 integument, a close coating of wool, and much long shaggy hair, 

 should have also been the occupants of wide tracts of Northern 

 Europe and Asia?f At one time, it was deemed expedient to 



the Museum of Natural History at St. Petersburg, and deposited there by 

 Pallas. On referring personally to Baron Humboldt, since the publication 

 of his work on Central Asia, he expressed his opinion, that the perfect con- 

 servation of the skin, mustachios, and whole body of Prince Menzikoff, buried 

 100 years ago in Siberia, and accidentally disinterred, ought to satisfy us 

 respecting the conservation of the mammoth, by simple reference to the 

 climate of that country. 



* The researches of the Rev. "W. V. Harcourt, and of Mr. H. E. Strick- 

 land, are most important in shewing (the former at Market Weighton, the 

 latter at Cropthorne on the Avon) the co-existence of the mammoth, Bos 

 Urus, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, lion, bear, tiger, hyaena, deer, &c. (all of 

 species distinct from those in existence), with land and freshwater shells, 

 nearly all of which are identical with species now living in Britain ; thus 

 proving, that no very great change of climate has taken place since these 

 animals were contemporaneous. (See Proceedings of the Geological Society, 

 1834, Silurian System, p. 554, and Phil. Mag., September 1829 and January 

 1830.) 



t This coating, Dr. Fleming has well remarked, was probably as impene- 

 trable to rain and cold as that of the musk ox of the Polar Circle. Edin. 

 New Phil. Journal, No. 12, p. 285. 





