THE FORMATION OF GLACIERS. 
209 
means a solitary specimen ; upon further inves- 
tigation it was found that the disinterment of 
these large tropical animals in Northern Russia 
and Asia was no unusual occurrence. Indeed, 
their frequent discoveries of this kind had given 
rise among the ignorant inhabitants to the sin- 
gular superstition already alluded to, that gigan- 
tic moles lived under the earth, which crumbled 
away and turned to dust as soon as they came to 
the upper air. This tradition, no doubt, arose 
from the fact, that, when in digging they came 
upon the bodies of these animals, they often 
found them perfectly preserved under the frozen 
ground, but the moment they were exposed to 
heat and light they decayed and fell to pieces at 
once. Admiral Wrangel, whose Arctic explora- 
tions have been so valuable to science, tells us 
that the remains of these animals are heaped up 
in such quantities in certain parts of Siberia that 
he and his men climbed over ridges and mounds 
consisting entirely of the bones of Elephants, Rhi- 
noceroses, etc. From these facts it would seem 
that they roamed over all these northern regions 
in troops as large and numerous as the Buffalo 
herds that wander over our Western prairies 
now. We are indebted to Russian naturalists, 
and especially to Rathke, lor the most minute in- 
vestigations of these remains, in which even the 
texture of the hair, the skin, and flesh has been 
