DISCOVERED AT KIRKDALE, IN YORKSHIRE. 
45 
lived antecedently to the great inundation by which they were extir¬ 
pated is a distinct matter of inquiry, on which the highest authorities 
are by no means agreed. It is the opinion of Cuvier, on the one hand, 
that as some of the fossil animals differ from existing species of the 
genera to which they belong, it is probable they had a constitution 
adapted to endure the rigours of a northern winter; and this opinion 
derives support from the Siberian elephant’s carcase, discovered with 
all its flesh entire, in the ice of Tungusia, and having its skin partially 
covered by long hair and wool; and from the hairy rhinoceros found 
in 1771 in the same country, in the frozen gravel of Vilhoui, having 
its flesh and skin still perfect, and of which the head and feet are 
now preserved at Petersburg, together with the skeleton of the ele¬ 
phant above alluded to, and a large quantity of its wool. To which 
Cuvier adds the further fact, that there are genera of existing ani¬ 
mals, e. g. the fox tribe, which have species adapted to the extremes 
both of polar and tropical climates. 
On the other hand, it is contended that the abundant occurrence of 
fossil crocodiles and tortoises, and of vegetables and shells (e. g. palms 
and nautili), nearly allied in structure and character to those which are 
now peculiar to hot climates, in the secondary strata, as well as in the 
diluvium of high north latitudes, renders it more probable that the 
climate was warm in which these plants and animals lived and died, 
than that a change of constitution and habit should have taken place 
in so many animal and vegetable genera, the existing members of which 
are rarely found except in the warmer regions of the present earth. 
To this argument, I would add a still greater objection arising from 
the difficulty of maintaining such animals as those we are considering 
