434 Sir R. I. Murchison on the 



conclusions than those which we have endeavoured to sustain ; and 

 which, in fact, do not imply, even as great an oscillation of land 

 within this comparatively modern period, as would be required to ex- 

 plain the surface phenomena of most other parts of Europe with 

 which we are acquainted. In truth, the uprising of Siberia " en 

 masse" to the height of one or two hundred feet above its general 

 level, when mammoths lived, will amply suffice to explain both the 

 desiccation of its northern shores into the mud of which the fossil 

 terrestrial remains had been washed, and the increased cold over that 

 vast mass of continental land. 



In the mean time, we may repeat, that whether discovered in the 

 gravelly detritus or clay on either flank of the Ural, in the high 

 banks of the great streams which respectively flow into Asia and 

 Europe, or in still greater quantities on the sides of the estuaries of 

 the great Siberian rivers upon the glacial ocean ; in all cases, we 

 find the mammoths entombed in materials, which, whether coarse 

 lacustrine shingle near the mountains, or mud and sand at a distance 

 from them, all announce, in the most emphatic manner, that these 

 great creatures lived in lands adjacent to lakes and estuaries, in 

 which, during long ages their bones were interred, and were 

 sometimes carried out to sea, and commingled with oceanic re- 

 mains. 



Though we now take leave of the Ural chain, we will terminate the 

 subject which occupies us, by giving a brief abstract sketch of the 

 manner in which the great extinct mammals are distributed over 

 European Russia. 



Fossil Quadrupeds of Russia in Europe. — Far from being peculiar 

 to the Ural mountains and Siberia, the remains of mammoths, and 

 other lost quadrupeds, have been found over very considerable regions 

 of Russia in Europe. Pallas had long ago mentioned several localities 

 where such mammalian remains have been observed. Though we 

 ourselves are acquainted with situations in which they have been 

 found, in the governments of Moscow, Vladimir, Perm, &c. ; we best 

 know them through the collections formed in the Imperial Museum 

 of Natural History of Moscow, where, under the auspices and direc- 

 tion of our venerable friend Dr. Fischer, they have obtained a just 

 celebrity. 



