sent, though
it would have modified the temperature to some extent. Under such
circumstances Southern Siberia could not have been a desirable place of
residence for large mammals. It would have been necessary for the
Mammoth and the other species referred to, to wander farther into the
extreme south of Asia or Europe to find a suitable refuge during the
arctic conditions which are supposed to have prevailed in Northern
Europe. To quote Professor J. Geikie's own words (p. 706): "They
(Mammoth, etc.) would seem to have lived in Southern Siberia throughout
the whole Pleistocene period, from which region doubtless they
originally invaded our Continent. But with the approach of our genial
forest-epoch (penultimate inter-glacial stage) they gradually vanished
from Europe, to linger for a long time in Siberia before they finally
died out." It is suggested, therefore, by the author that the Mammoth
and the other mammals whose remains have been discovered on the New
Siberian Islands found their way there during one of the late
inter-glacial stages of the Ice-Age. But there is no astonishment
expressed by Professor Geikie at the extraordinary change of climate
which must have occurred in Siberia to allow of such migrations. I can
find no very definite statement in this author's work as to the nature
of the climate in Europe during those inter-glacial phases, but he
remarks (p. 129) "that the evidence of the Scottish inter-glacial beds,
so far as it went, did not entitle us to infer that during their
accumulation local glaciers may not have existed in the Highland
valleys." There is no evidence, in other words, of the existence in
Europe of a milder climate than that prevailing at present. Still less
can there be any ground for the supposition that the climate of the
whole of Siberia ameliorated to such an extent that forests and meadows
could develop as far north as the New Siberian Islands; for if the
temperature in Europe was then about the same as now, that of Siberia
could not have been vastly higher than it is at present.

It is highly improbable, therefore, that a sufficiently mild climate
prevailed in the extreme north of Siberia during the so-called _later
inter-glacial periods_ to induce the mammals to which I have referred to
seek fresh pastures there.

The late Professor Brandt, one of the highest zoological authorities in
Russia, was of opinion that at the commencement of the Glacial period
the great mammals of Nort