178 DISCUSSION'S IN CLIMATOLOGY. 



Evidence from the Mammoth in Siberia. — This 

 comparative absence of the remains of a warmer 

 condition of climate in Arctic regions during Pleis- 

 tocene times holds true, however, only in regard to 

 those parts, like Greenland, which have undergone 

 severe glaciation. When we examine Siberia and 

 other places which appear to have escaped the destruc- 

 tive power of the ice, we find, from a class of facts 

 the physical importance of which appears to have 

 been greatly overlooked, abundant proofs of a mild 

 and equable condition of climate. I refer to facts 

 connected with the climatic condition under which the 

 Siberian mammoth and his congeners lived. The 

 simple fact that the mammoth lived in Northern 

 Siberia proves that at the time the climate of that 

 region must have been far different from what it is at 

 the present day. 



The opinion was long held, and is still held by some, 

 that the mammoth did not live in Northern Siberia, 

 where his remains are found, but in more southern 

 latitudes, and that these remains were carried down 

 by rivers. It was considered incredible that an 

 animal allied to the elephant, which now lives only 

 in tropical regions, should have existed under a 

 climate so rigorous as that of Siberia. The opinion 

 that the remains were floated down the Siberian 

 rivers is now, however, abandoned by Russian natu- 

 ralists and other observers who have carefully 

 examined the country. 



I shall here give a brief statement of the facts and 

 arguments which have been adduced in support of the 

 theory that the mammoth lived and died where its 

 remains were found. For these facts I am mainly 

 indebted to the admirable papers by Mr. Howorth on 

 the " Mammoth in Siberia," which appeared in the 

 " Geological Magazine " for 1880. 



