The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-04-12

carried through the streets In publlc procession,
to prscure rain, the pretended arm of saint
which was nothing less than the iemur of an ele-
phant. a& |rc
These fossil bones OF elephants are extensively
scattered, not in Europe only, but aim ost all
over the world; in Scandinavia, in Greece in
Spain, in Italy, in Africa In, the New World,
too, we have found, and continue still 10 find,
tUsks, molar teeth, and bones of the mammoth.
What Is most singular Is that these remains
exist more especially in great numbers in the
north of Europe, in the frozen regions OF
Siberia-regionsa altogether uninhabitable for
the elephant in our days. Every year, in the
season of thawing, the vast riverswhich descend
TO the Frozen Ocean sweep down with their
waters numerous portions of the banks, and
expose to view the bones buried in the soil and
in the excavations left by the rushing waters,
New Siberia and the Isle of Lackon are, for
the most part, only an agelomeTatlon OF sand
ice, and elephants teeth At every tempest the
sea casts ashore fresh heaps of mammoths'
tusks, and the inhabitants are able to drive a
profitable trade in the fossil ivory thrown up
by the waves. During summer, innumerable
6shermen's barks direct their course to this
isle Of bones; and In winter, immense caravans
take the same route, all the conveys drawn by
dogs, returning charged with the tusks of the
mammoth, weighing each from hundred and
fifty to two hundred pounds. The fossil ivory
thus obtained from the frozen North is inn
ported into China and Europe, where it is
employed for the same purposes as ordinary
ivory-Which is furnished, as we know, by the
elephant and hippopotamus of Africa and ASIA
d
valuable material for export to China for five
hundred years; and il has been exported TO
Europe for upwards of a hundred. But the
supply from these strange mines remains undi-
minisbed. What a number of accumulated
generations does not this profusion Of bones and
tusks imply! -.fr
1t was in Russia that the fossil elephant re-
ceived the name Of mammoth, and its tusks
mammoth horns. Pallas asserts that the name
originates in the word mamma" which in the
Tartar idom signifies earth. The Russians of
the north believe that these bones proceed from
an enormous animal which lived, like the mole,
in holes which it dug in the earth. 1t could
not support the light, says the legend, but died
when exposed to it. According to other authors,
the word proceeds from the Arabic word "behe-
MOTH" which, in the Book of Job, designates
an unknown animal; or from the epithet "me-
hemot, which the Arabs have been accustomed
to add to the name Of the elephant when of
unusual size. ..-
OF all parts of Europe, that in which they
are found IN greatest numbers is the Valley of
the Upper Arno. We find there perfect
cemetery of elephants. Their bones were at one
time so common in the valley, that the pea
santry employed them discriminatory with stones
IN constructing walls and houses. Since they
have learned their value, however, they reserve
them tor sale to travellers. 1t is very strange
that the East Indies, one of the two regions
which is now the home OF the elephant, should
be the only country in which its fossil bones
have not been discovered. But from the cir
cumstance that the gigantic mammoth Inhabited
nearly every region OF the globe, we are drawn
10 the conclusion Ito which many other inter-
ences lead) that during the geological period
in which these ANIMALS lived, the general tenn
perature of the earth was much higher than it
IS at present.
A noteworthy circumstance is that, in still
earlier times, an elevated temperature and q
constant humidity do not seem to have been
limited TO any one part OF the globe. The heat
seems to have been the same in all latitudes.
From the equatorial regions up to Melville
Island, in the Arctic Ocean, where, In our days,
the trosts are eternal, from Spitzbergen to the
centre OF Africa, the carboniierous flora presents
an identity. When we find almost the same tos-
sils at Greenland and in Guinea, when the
same species, now extinct, are met with under
the same degree of development at the equator
and the pole, we cannot but admit that, at this
epoch, the temperature OF the globe was alike
everywhere. What we now call climate was,
therefore, unknown in geological times. There
seems to have been but one climate over the
whole globe. 1t was only at later period, that
is, in the tertiary epoch, that by the progressive
cooling of the globe, the cold began to make
itself felt at the polar extremities. What, then,
was the cause Of that uniformity of temperature
which we now regard with so much surprise
1t proceeded from the excessive heat of the ter
restrial sphere. The earth was still so hot in
itself, that Hs innate temperature rendered
superfluous and inappreciable the heat which
reached it from the sun. nj. Figuier makes
comparison between this state of things and the
climate of equatorial Africa but no human
being, not the toughest negro, could support
such course of stewing, steaming, and broiling.
Let us now, as a cooling contrast, glance at
what geologists call the glacial period, the
winter OF the ancient world, and which we must
consider as the most curious episode, however
certain, in the history of the earth. For,
although the cold might be explained by plausi.
Bile hypothesis, the grand puzzle is to know how
the earth got warm again. M. Flguler has the
courage to admit that no explanation presents
itself which can be considered conclusive; add
ing, that sin science its professors should never
be afraid to say, 1 do not knOao." .#}
AT this visitation, the vast countries which
| extend from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean
and the Danube were overtakeu by severe
and sudden loss of their usual genial warmth.
| The temperature OF the glacial regions seized
| them. If this cooling still remain an unsolved
problem, its effects are perfectly appreciable.
/ The result was the humiliation of organic life
| in the northern and central parts of Europe.
| All the Water-couTses, the rivers and rivulets,
| the seas and lakes, were frozen. AS Agassz
says in his first work on Glaciers, "a vast
mantle OF ice and snow covered the plains, the
| dried up: the rivers ceased to flow. To the
| motions OF a numerous and animated creation
| the silence OF death must have succeeded.
| Great numbers of animals perished from cold.
The elephant and rhinoceros were killed by
| thousands in the bosom of their grazing.
| grounds, and were thus efaced from the list ol
| living creatures. Other animals also were over
Whelmed, but their race did not entirely perish
To attain a full and clear belief that such
things really did occur, 1t Is necessary TO visit
| at least in idea, country where glaciers still
exist. We shall then discover that the glaciers
| ofSWitzerland and Savoy have not always been
confined TO their present limits, and that they
| are only miniature resemblances of the gigantic
glaciers OF other times. And professor Tyn
| dali informs us) not in Switzerland alone-no
alone in proximity with existing glaciers-arC
the wellknown vestiges of ancient Ice discerni
| BILE; on the hills of Cumberland they are almost
/ Qo fhn Inc nd ohnN1