Mammoth Remains.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 7075, 22 February 1893, Page 2

Mammoth Remains.

One word, says Mr Howorth, upon a great geological problem. Nearly all the Central Asiatic plateau is really a huge elevated saucer, surrounded by high bills, the Thisn Shan on the north, the Pamir on tho west, the Himalayas on tho south ; north of this is the great plain of Siberia. All over this plain wo find, wherever the ground is sufficiently hard froaen, the remains of mammoths,

etc, preserved very fresh, so that wolves and bears can feed ou their remains. These great mammoths have been found not in"one but in many places all over the country from the East right to the Obi. They aro found under conditions which make it certain they could not have lived unless the surroundings and climate were entirely different. We have the remains of the plants on which they fed, and southern contemporary shells are found with the remains pointing to climatic conditions which do not exist any longer. Now, what was it produced a change in these conditions ? I believe myself that this vast plateau is one Of the recent features in the physical geography of the world, and that its rapid elevation caused the tremendous change of climate which has enabled the bodies of these beasts to be preserved iotaot as we find them. Unless these animals had been frozen immediately they died, and remained frozen to this day, they would certainly have decayed and disappeared ; a single Siberian summer sun would have destroyed them completely, and consequently we have a huge problem to face. The bones of great animals have been found 17,000 feet above the level of the sea under conditions absolutely incompatible “with their mode of life-