As we contemplate this most extraordinary phenomenon of the frozen mammoths in the Siberian north, the questions naturally force themselves upon us: How did they get there? What is the explanation for these strangest of all spectacles? Many solutions have been offered; but every unprejudiced reader wil agree with the conclusion arrived at by the English scientist Howarth, who writes:" These facts, I claim, prove several conclusions. They prove in the first place that a very great cataclysm and catastrophe occurred at the close of the mammoth period by which that animal, with its companions was overwhelmed over a very large part of the earth's surface. Secondly, that this catastrophe involved a widespread flood of waters which not only killed the animals, but also buried them under continuous beds of loam or gravel. Thirdly, that the same catastrophe was accompanied by a very great and sudden change of climate in Siberia, by which the animals which had previously lived in fairly temperate conditions were frozen in their flesh under the ground and have remained frozen ever since."
He then continues: "We want a cause that should kill the animals, and yet not break to pieces their bodies, or even mutilate them; a cause which would in some cases disintegrate the skulls without weathering the bones. We want a cause that would not merely do this as a widespead plague or murrain might, but one which would bury the bodies as well as kill the animals, which would take up gravel and clay and lay them down again, and which would sweep together animals of different sizes and species and mix them with trees and other debris of vegetation. What cause competent to do this is known to us? Water would drown the animals and yet would not mutilate their bodies. It would kill them all with comlete impartiality, irrespective of their strength, age or size. It would take up clay and earth, and cover the bodies with it...Not only could it do this, but it is the only cause known to me capable of doing the work on a scale commensurate with the effects we see here in Siberia. "
Brien
He then continues: "We want a cause that should kill the animals, and yet not break to pieces their bodies, or even mutilate them; a cause which would in some cases disintegrate the skulls without weathering the bones. We want a cause that would not merely do this as a widespead plague or murrain might, but one which would bury the bodies as well as kill the animals, which would take up gravel and clay and lay them down again, and which would sweep together animals of different sizes and species and mix them with trees and other debris of vegetation. What cause competent to do this is known to us? Water would drown the animals and yet would not mutilate their bodies. It would kill them all with comlete impartiality, irrespective of their strength, age or size. It would take up clay and earth, and cover the bodies with it...Not only could it do this, but it is the only cause known to me capable of doing the work on a scale commensurate with the effects we see here in Siberia. "
Brien
