Aug. 12, 1911.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
249 
the last British expedition to the Arctic regions 
under Captain (now Sir George) Nares, a seam 
of coal twenty feet thick was found on the coast 
of Smith Sound in latitude 8i^°. This part is 
now almost the extreme limit of animal life, for 
while the ships remained there, the number of birds 
and other animals killed for food was very small. 
At the geological period when the coal was 
forming, bamboos and pomegranates grew in 
Central Europe. Apes, elephants, hippopotami 
and crocodiles lived in the part now forming 
the British Islands. Captain (now Admiral) 
Markham, in his “Threshold of the Unknown 
Region,” remarks: “One of the most interest¬ 
ing facts acquired of late years to geological 
science has been that of a luxuriant and highly 
organized vegetation of Miocene age on the east 
coast of Greenland. No less than 200 species 
have been established. * * * A series of rocks 
collected in the neighborhood of Disco, by Dr. 
Lyall, was placed in the hands of Dr. Hooker. 
These fossils he forwarded to Prof. C. Heer, 
of Zurich, for investigation, who brought for¬ 
ward the most convincing proofs that that lati¬ 
tude was once inhabited by extensive forests, 
presenting fifty or sixty different species of 
arborescent trees (most of them with decidu¬ 
ous leaves) some three or four inches in diam¬ 
eter—the elm, pine, oak, maple, plane, etc., and, 
what was more remarkable still, evidences of 
apparently evergreen trees, showing that these 
regions must have had perennial light. * * * On 
the west side of Prince Patrick’s Island, Cap¬ 
tain Markham found trees of considerable size 
buried in a ravine with bark in a perfect state 
and in a position which proved that they must 
have grown on the spot. One tree was four 
feet round and thirty long. The position was 
400 feet above the sea. At the northwest ex¬ 
treme of Bank’s Island a great number of fossil 
trees was also found 300 feet above the sea. 
Dr. Elooker considered the wood to be that of 
white spruce (Abies alba).” 
Siberia and these other regions at the. time 
when the above mentioned vegetation prevailed 
were inhabited by great herds of mammoths, 
and doubtless of elks, of horses and their allies, 
of the various kinds of antelope, sheep and oxen 
still remaining on the great tablelands of Thibet 
and in the Himalayas, besides tigers, panthers, 
bears and other beasts of prey. 
Cottrell writes: “Siberia is the country where 
the remains of the mammoth are found in the 
greatest abundance, in many cases with the flesh 
and skin still upon them. They are frequently 
dug up on all the northeastern coast, but dimin¬ 
ish in size further north, while they increase 
considerably in numbers. The size and weight 
of the tusks vary. Near the mouth of the 
Lena they have been found weighing 432 pounds, 
while on the islands of the icy sea they rarely 
exceed one-quarter of that weight. 
"In this region alternate strata of earth and 
ice are found to an unknown depth, and the 
soil itself is always frozen. On the banks of 
the rivers the fossil remains are generally de¬ 
posited. Vast fissures created by the snow and 
water which penetrate the upper crust cause 
large masses of earth and ice to become de¬ 
tached, when these monstrous remains burst 
forth from their hiding places after a lapse of 
years which no one pretends to count. By this 
means the most perfect specimen that has ever 
been found came to light, which is now in the 
museum at Petersburg, in a small room alone 
with an elephant which is comparatively a dwarf 
by its side. * * * A good deal of the hair re¬ 
mained on the animal when found. It is the 
color of the camel’s, and there are three distinct 
coatings, the underrpost about an inch and a 
half long, thick and curly; then a sort of bristle 
from three to four inches long, of a dark reddish 
color; and then some strong bristles from twelve 
to eighteen inches long, thicker than horse hair. 
Besides this it had a long mane. The skin is 
half an inch thick, of a dark gray color, not un- 
DIPPING IN THE ROUGH WATER ON THE MERSEY. 
like the common elephant's. About a pud (thirty- 
six pounds) of loose hair was found detached 
from it. 
“Mr. Hederstrom collected a great number of 
mammoth tusks and bones at Ust Yensk, but 
having no means of carrying them away, he 
broke them and took out the marrow. The 
tusks are so abundant in places that some of 
the New Siberian islands are almost formed of 
them. * * * On the west coast of the Isle of 
Liakoff the remains are most numerous, so as 
to form the ground work of the island, and al¬ 
though there have been constant removals of 
them during eighty summers, there is no appar¬ 
ent diminution in the number. After a long 
continuance of easterly winds the bank in which 
they are embedded becomes exposed, and a large 
supply is cast up, seemingly from the bed of 
the sea.” 
The New Siberian islands were discovered 
in 1770 by a Russian, named Liakoff. In the 
month of March a herd of reindeer was seen 
coming over the ice from the north to the Siber¬ 
ian coast. Early in April, Liakoff started in 
sledges drawn by dogs to follow their back 
tracks. After going fifty miles over the ice he 
came to three large islands. The largest, now 
named Kotelnoi, is 100 miles long and 60 wide. 
The whole group is 205 miles long. Immense 
alluvial deposits filled with wood and fossil 
bones, which are found throughout the shores 
of Arctic Siberia, are still more abundant in the 
cliffs of these islands'. 
In March, 1821, Lieutenant Anjou, of the Rus¬ 
sian service, went in dog sledges over the ice 
to Kotelnoi, and in April, north of that island 
for forty-two miles. He was then stopped by 
the ice being too thin for safe traveling. 
In March and April, 1822, Baron Wrangell 
went 170 miles from the mainland, starting from 
Nijni Kolymsk. He also was stopped by the 
thinness of the ice, and seeing signs of open 
water, he returned to Kolynsk on May 5. In 
1823 he reached Cape Chelyuskin, but was 
obliged to turn back when seventy miles from 
land, because the ice was only three feet thick 
and broken by gales of wind. Soundings were 
taken through holes in the ice during all these 
expeditions, and the greatest depth of sea found 
anywhere was only fourteen fathoms. 
The fact that the bones of mammoths are 
found on the New Siberian Islands proves that 
Siberia formerly extended to them, and if the 
sunk bed of the sea were now upheaved, that 
which lies for a great distance north of the 
islands would also form part of the mainland. 
We have then the following facts to be ac¬ 
counted for. First—A former mild climate with 
luxuriant vegetation supporting woolly rhinoceri, 
great herds of mammoths and other animals with 
probably palaeolithic man also. 
Second—-A change of climate destroying the 
forests and exterminating most of the animals. 
Third—The preservation of numerous car¬ 
casses of mammoths on the mainland, in some 
cases with food still remaining in their stomachs 
or between their teeth, while the bones alone 
and no carcasses, or even fragments of skin 
or flesh, are found on the islands. 
Fourth—The bones being in such immense 
quantities that some of the islands are chiefly 
formed of them. 
Fifth—On the American continent the exist¬ 
ence of numerous fossil remains of mastodons, 
mammoths and other animals without, so far as 
is known, one instance of the flesh having been 
preserved. 
It appears quite possible to explain all these 
facts by the theory of a sudden change in the 
distribution of land and water, having altered 
the direction of a warm ocean current which 
previously flowed into the Arctic seas. The 
great mass of ice now in them is permanently 
imprisoned to such an extent that only a com¬ 
paratively small portion is able to escape south¬ 
ward through Smith Sound and a few other 
smaller channels, and in a larger current flow¬ 
ing down the east coast of Greenland. The 
presence of this enormous extent of frozen sea 
cools the summers and causes severe winters for 
a long distance southward all over the Northern 
Hemisphere. 
The severity of the climates in Northwestern 
