372 



HISTORICAL PALAEONTOLOGY. 



measured along their curvature. In the frozen soil of Siberia 

 several carcasses of the Mammoth have been discovered with 

 the flesh and skin still attached to the bones, the most cele- 

 brated of these being a Mammoth which was discovered at the 

 beginning of this century at the mouth of the Lena, on the borders 

 of the Frozen Sea, and the skeleton of which is now preserved 

 at St. Petersburg (fig. 266). From the occurrence of the remains 

 of the Mammoth in vast numbers in Siberia, it might have been 

 safely inferred that this ancient Elephant was able to endure a far 

 more rigorous climate than its existing congeners. This infer- 

 ence has, however, been rendered a certainty by the specimens 

 just referred to, which show that the Mammoth was protected 



Fig. 267. Molar tooth of the Mammoth (Elephaa primigenlus'), upper jaw, right side, 

 one-third of the naturai size, a, Grinding surface ; 6, Side view. Post-Pliocene. 



against the cold by a thick coat of reddish-brown wool, some 

 nine or ten inches long, interspersed with strong, coarse black 

 hair more than a foot in length. The teeth of the Mammoth 

 (fig. 267) are of the type of those of the existing Indian Ele- 

 phant, and are found in immense numbers in certain localities. 

 The Mammoth was essentially northern in its distribution, 

 never passing south of a line drawn through the Pyrenees, the 

 Alps, the northern shores of the Caspian, Lake Baikal, Kam- 

 schatka, and the Stanovi Mountains (Dawkins). It occurs in 

 the Pre-Glacial forest-bed of Cromer in Norfolk, survived the 

 Glacial period, and is found abundantly in Post-Glacial de- 



