494 
SIBERIAN ENTOMBMENT OF MAMMOTHS. 
and even far into the interior, the proofs of the abode of the sea or marine estuaries 
during long periods. 
But we now return to the Ural. A former terrestrial surface on which the great 
quadrupeds lived for long ages, and the rupture and desiccation ot adjacent lakes, 
coincident with some of the last elevations of the chain, will, w 7 e are convinced, 
best explain the condition in which the remains of the mammoths are left buried 
on the edges of the uplifted ridges of the Ural, as well as in the low lands and great 
estuaries furthest removed from them. In the depressions at the very foot of the 
chain, the mammoth skeletons are broken up, and their bones, together with those 
of Rhinoceros tichorhinus and Bos Urus, are rudely commingled in the coarse shingle, 
derived from the mountains or in the clay above it. In proportion, however, as 
we advance into the plains of Siberia or descend into the valley of the Tobol and 
the Obe or their affluents, these bones increase in quantity, and are at the same 
time in much better conservation. Even in the flat country of Siberia, about 
thirty versts eastward of our excursion on the Issetz (see p. 366), Pallas mentions 
the occurrence of teeth, vertebra and bones of mammoth and remains of fossil ox, as 
having been found abundantly by the peasants at several localities near Tamakulsk 
and the source and banks of the little streams Atish and Suvarish, both tributaries 
of the Issetz. He also gives (from the information he received) a detailed account 
of the order in which various beds of sand and clay there succeed to each other, 
and in which sharks’ teeth and palates of fishes also occur. Hence he concludes, 
that the beds in which the bones were found formed the bottom of an argillaceous 
sea, and that certain sandy, micaceous materials in superior beds were washed 
down from the mountains. Now we cannot for a moment suppose that the great 
naturalist could have been mistaken in the marine character of the fish remains ; 
but as he did not visit the spot himself 1 , there may still be some doubt that the 
mammoths’ bones occur in the very same beds with the fossil wood, sharks’ teeth, 
&c. ; for these, we apprehend, must certainly belong to the tertiary deposits of clay, 
sand, lignite and millstone grit of which we took leave at Kaltchedansk, and which 
appear to extend widely into Siberia. That deposit is, we must think, of higher an- 
tiquity than the detrital accumulations which inclose the mammoths. However this 
may be, the further the Siberian rivers are followed towards their mouths, the more, 
1 Pallas derived his information respecting the order of the beds and the position of the remains at 
and near Tamakulsk from Colonel Bibikolf, Director of the Forge of Kamensk (see vol. ii. p. 392, 
French Ed., 1793). 
