Ragnarok : the age of fire and gravel

THE DRIFT A GIGANTIC CATASTROPHE. 49

leaves and remains of the elephant and mastodon found below and in the drift in America.* “The remains of the mastodon, rhinoceros, hippo-

potamus, and elephant are found in the pre-glacial beds of Italy.” +

These animals were slaughtered outright, and so suddenly that few escaped :

Admiral Wrangel tells us that the remains of elephants, rhinoceroses, etc., are heaped up in such quantities in certain parts of Siberia that “he and his men climbed over ridges and mounds composed entirely of their bones.” t

We have seen that the Drift itself has all the appearance of having been the product of some sudden catastrophe :

“Stones and bowlders alike are scattered higgledypiggledy, pell-mell, through the clay, so as to give it a highly confused and tumultuous appearance.”

Another writer says :

“Tn the mass of the ‘till’ itself fossils sometimes, but very rarely, occur. Tusks of the mammoth, reindeer-antlers, and fragments of wood have from time to time been discovered. They almost invariably afford marks of having been subjected to the same action as the stones and bowlders by which they are surrounded.” *

Another Says :

“Logs and fragments of wood are often got at great depths in the buried gorges.” ||

* “Smithsonian Contributions,” vol. xy.

+ “The Great Ice Age,” p, 492.

t Agassiz, “ Geological Sketches,” p. 209,

*“ The Great Ice Age,” p. 150.

| “Illustrations of Surface Geology,” “ Smithsonian Contributions.”