Habitation and Destruction of the Mammoths. 435 



In Russia, as in every other great region which has been examin- 

 ed, the races of lost mammals present some types which connect her 

 former lands with those of other countries, associated with forms 

 which are peculiar to her. Thus, whilst, in common with America, 

 Russia contains the Mammoth and Mastodon ; and in common with 

 Britain, the Elephas primigenius, Rhinoceros tichorhinus, Trogontheri- 

 um, beaver, bear, elk, &c, she once possessed generic forms, as 

 Merycotherium and Elasmotherium, which have hitherto been found 

 elsewhere. Russia is, indeed, as peculiar in her possessions of the 

 latter extraordinary pachyderm as South America is for the Mylodon 

 and Glyptodon.* 



The lost races of mammals which have been detected in Russia in 

 Europe are found, we have said, in exactly the same sort of detritus 

 as that in which they occur in the flat northern tracts of Siberia, or 

 near the mouths of its great rivers. In all the central and southern 

 parts of European Russia, there are no high ridges of elevation, and, 

 consequently, no coarse local detritus, like that on the flanks of the 

 Ural, so that the mammoth alluvium assumes the same aspect as in 

 the distant plains of Siberia, where it is equally removed from dis- 

 turbing causes. Here, however, it is equally evident, that such allu- 

 vium has been the result of currents of water, for it is piled up, and 

 often tumultuously, in great thicknesses, and constitutes the chief 

 banks of most of the streams, as well as the covering of numerous 

 plateaux. Occasionally, indeed, the coarser clay drift passes upwards 

 into finely levigated silt, which, in certain tracts, may be represented 

 by the rich black earth or tchornozem, of which we shall treat at 

 some length in the last chapter. In illustrating the ordinary charac- 



* The geological position of Lophiodon Sibericum, which is stated to have 

 been found in a calcareous formation in the government of Orenburg, is 

 doubtful ; if it be miocene, or eocene, it accords with the beds containing 

 Lophiodon in Continental Europe and England. Elasmotherium may be 

 said to be as peculiar to Russia as Mylodon, fyc. to South America ; but 

 we are informed by Professor Owen, that there are no existing analogues 

 in Siberia to illustrate the Elasmotherium, like the sloths and armadillos 

 of South America, which explain the affinities of the Mcgatherian animals. 

 See Professor Owen's most remarkable work on the Mylodon. (4to, London, 

 1842.) 



