28 o 
EXTINCT MONSTERS 
It is often no easy matter to form conclusions with regard to 
the habits of extinct animals ; and we must not rely too much 
on arguments derived from the habits of their living descendants 
or relatives. The older geologists fell into this mistake, as did 
even Cuvier. Modern elephants are at present restricted to 
regions where trees with perennial foliage flourish ; and therefore ^ 
it was argued that there must have been a change of climate, 
either gradual or sudden in the country of the mammoth. The 
late Sir Eichard Owen, however, did not share these views, as the 
following extract shows : The fact seems to have been generally 
overlooked that an animal organised to gain its subsistence 
from the branches or woody flbre of trees, is thereby rendered 
independent of the seasons which regulate the development of 
leaves and fruit; the forest food of such species becomes as 
perennial as the lichens that flourish beneath the winter snows 
of Lapland ; and were such a quadruped to be clothed, like the 
reindeer, with a natural garment capable of resisting the rigours 
of an arctic winter, its adaptation for such a climate would be 
complete. . . . The wonderful and unlooked-for discovery of an 
entire Mammoth, demonstrating the arctic character of its natural 
clothing, has, however, confirmed the deductions which might 
have been legitimately founded upon the localities of its most 
abundant remains, as well as upon the structure of its teeth, 
viz. that, like the Eeindeer and Musk Ox of the present day, it 
was capable of existing in high northern latitudes.” ^ 
The problem of the extinction of the Mammoth is not an 
easy one to solve. We can hardly account for its disappearance 
by calling in geographical changes by which its range became 
restricted and its food supply diminished, so that in the 
^ A History of British Fossil Mammals and Birds^ by Richard Owen, 
F.R.S., etc. London, 1846. 
