148 



THE WONDERS OF GEOLOGY. Lect. II. 



large herbivora, especially of those allied to the elephantine 

 family, which occur in great abundance, and are very 

 generally distributed throughout Europe, Asia, and Ame- 

 rica. In the earlier ages, these colossal bones were sup- 

 posed to belong to gigantic races of mankind, and gave rise 

 to the marvellous traditions of giants, so rife in every 

 country in Europe ; but we need not smile at the ignorance 

 and credulity of our ancestors, for, not many years since, 

 a fossil tooth of an elephant, found in digging a well in 

 Brighton, was supposed to be a petrified cauliflower ! 



In Russia, and more especially in Siberia, the fossil 

 bones of extinct species of Elephants, and other mam- 

 malia, are found throughout all the low lands, and in the 

 sandy plains which extend from the borders of Europe 

 to the nearest extreme point of America, and south 

 and north from the base of the mountains of central Asia, 

 to the shores of the Arctic sea. Within this space, which 

 is almost equal in extent to the whole of Europe, fossil ivory 

 is everywhere to be found ; and the tusks are so numerous 

 and well preserved, especially in Northern Russia, that 

 thousands are annually collected, and form a lucrative 

 article of commerce. In Siberia alone, the remains of a 

 greater number of elephants have been discovered, than 

 are supposed to exist at the present time all over the 

 world.* 



17. Fossil mammalia of the valley of the Thames. 

 — It may appear astounding to some of my readers to treat 

 of elephants, rhinoceroses, hippopotami, and gigantic elks, 



*Inl844, a company of merchants was formed to collect teeth and 

 tusks of mammoths from Siberia ; for the fossil ivory was found to 

 possess all the qualities of the recent, and at the same time was less 

 liable to turn yellow. During the year, sixteen thousand pounds of 

 jaws and tusks of mammoths were obtained, and these were sold at 

 St. Petersburg, under the denomination of Siberian ivory, at prices 

 from 30 to 100 per cent, above those of recent elephantine ivory. 



