If the Mammoth flourished in temperate latitudes only, as formerly suggested, then its thick shaggy coat becomes superfluous and meaningless; but if it lived in the region where its body has been found, then the argument from its teeth, and the fir-spikes found in its stomach, is confirmed by the nature of its skin, and all the old difficulties vanish. Professor Owen considers that we may safely infer that, if living at the present day, it would find a sufficient supply of food at all seasons of the year in the sixtieth parallel, and even higher. Perhaps they migrated north during the summer; and, judging from the present limits of arboreal vegetation, they may have been able to subsist even in latitude 70° north, for at the extreme points of Lapland pines attain a height of sixty feet.[66]
[66] Sir Henry Howorth, in his Mammoth and the Flood, suggests another theory, and gives some valuable information.
It is often no easy matter to form conclusions with regard to the habits of extinct animals; and too much reliance must not be placed on arguments derived from the habits of their living descendants or their near relations. The older geologists fell into this mistake with regard to the Mammoth, as did even Cuvier. Modern elephants are at present restricted to regions where trees flourish with perennial foliage, and, therefore, it was argued that there must have been a change of climate—either gradual or sudden, in the country of the Mammoth.
Cuvier, who believed in sudden revolutions on the earth’s surface, argued that the Mammoth could not possibly have lived in Siberia as it is now; and that, at the very moment when the beast was destroyed, the land was suddenly converted into a glacial region! (“C’est donc le même instant qui a fait périr les animaux, et qui a rendu glacial le pays qu’ils habitaient, cet événement a été subit, instantané, sans aucune gradation.”[67]) Sir Charles Lyell argued, from geological evidence with regard to the rise of land along the Siberian coast, that the climate had become somewhat more severe, and that finally the Mammoth, though protected by its shaggy coat, died out on account of scarcity of food.[68]
[67] Ossemens Fossiles, tom. i. p. 108.
[68] See The Principles of Geology, vol. i. chap. x.
Professor Owen is unwilling to believe that such changes as these brought about the final extinction of the Mammoth, and he concludes that it was quite possible for such an animal to have flourished as near to the North Pole as is compatible with the growth of hardy trees or shrubs.
"The fact seems to have been generally overlooked, that an animal organised to gain its subsistence from the branches or woody fibre of trees, is thereby rendered independent of the seasons which regulate the development of leaves and fruit; the forest food of such a species becomes as perennial as the lichens that flourish beneath the winter snows of Lapland; and, were such a quadruped to be clothed, like the reindeer, with a natural garment capable of resisting the rigours of an arctic winter, its adaptation for such a climate would be complete.... The wonderful and unlooked-for discovery of an entire Mammoth, demonstrating the arctic character of its natural clothing, has, however, confirmed the deductions which might have been legitimately founded upon the localities of its most abundant remains, as well as upon the structure of its teeth, viz. that, like the Reindeer and Musk Ox of the present day, it was capable of existing in high northern latitudes."[69]
[69] A History of British Fossil Mammals and Birds, by Richard Owen, F.R.S., etc. London, 1846.
The problem of the extinction of the Mammoth is not an easy one to solve. We can hardly account for its disappearance by calling in geographical changes by which its range became restricted, and its food supply diminished, so that in the competition with other herbivorous animals this primæval giant “went to the wall,” as the saying is. Nor does Lyell’s appeal to a change in climate, by which the cold of Siberia became too intense even for the Mammoth, seem quite satisfactory, especially when we remember how very far north fir trees range ([p. 211]).