THE ANTARCTIC ISLANDS 26 
of the land ; moreover, at greater depths, where the bottom of 
the sea does not freeze, the 
mud a few feet beneath the 
top layer might remain even 
in summer below 3 2 °, as is the 
case on the land with the soil 
at the depth of a few feet. 
At still greater depths the 
temperature of the mud and 
water would probably not be 
low enough to preserve the 
flesh ; and hence, carcasses 
drifted beyond the shallow 
parts near an arctic coast, 
would have only their skele¬ 
tons preserved : now in the 
extreme northern parts of 
Siberia bones are infinitely 
numerous, so that even islets 
are said to be almost com¬ 
posed of them 5 1 and those 
islets lie no less than ten 
degrees of latitude north of 
the place where Pallas found 
the frozen rhinoceros. On 
the other hand, a carcass 
washed by a flood into a 
shallow part of the Arctic 
Sea, would be preserved for 
an indefinite period, if it were 
soon afterwards covered with 
mud sufficiently thick to pre¬ 
vent the heat of the summer 
water penetrating to it ; and 
if, when the sea-bottom was 
upraised into land, the cover¬ 
ing was sufficiently thick to 
prevent the heat of the 
summer air and sun thawing 
1 Cuvier (Ossemens Fossiles, to 
nd corrupting it. 
. i. p. 151), from Billing’s Voyage. 
