The frozen substratum does not of itself destroy vegetation, for forests flourish on the surface, at a distance from the coast.") In a like manner, in Siberia, we have woods of birch, fir, aspen, and larch, growing in a latitude (64 degrees) where the mean temperature of the air falls below the freezing point, and where the earth is so completely frozen, that the carcass of an animal embedded in it is perfectly preserved.

(5/10.

See Humboldt "Fragmens Asiatiques" page 386: Barton's "Geography of Plants"; and Malte Brun.

In the latter work it is said that the limit of the growth of trees in Siberia may be drawn under the parallel of 70 degrees.) With these facts we must grant, as far as QUANTITY ALONE of vegetation is concerned, that the great quadrupeds of the later tertiary epochs might, in most parts of Northern Europe and Asia, have lived on the spots where their remains are now found.

I do not here speak of the KIND of vegetation necessary for their support; because, as there is evidence of physical changes, and as the animals have become extinct, so may we suppose that the species of plants have likewise been changed.
These remarks, I may be permitted to add, directly bear on the case of the Siberian animals preserved in ice.