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and vegetable creation, until the period arrived in which the elephant and rhinoceros
inhabited nearly the entire surface of what are now the temperate and frigid zones
of the northern hemisphere.
Assuming then on such evidence as I have alluded to, the former high
temperature of the arctic circle, and knowing from the investment in ice and preservation
of the carcass ofthe mammoth, that this region was intensely cold at the
time immediately succeeding its death, and has so continued to the present hour;
the point on which we are most iu want of decisive evidence is the temperature of
the climate in which the mammoth lived. It is in violation of existing analogies
to suppose that any extinct elephant or rhinoceros was more tolerant of cold than
extinct corallines or turtles; and as this northern region ofthe earth seems to
have undergone successive changes from heat to cold, so it is probable that the
last of these changes was coincident with the extirpation of the mammoth. That
this last change was sudden is shown by the preservation of the carcass in ice ; had
it been gradual, it might have caused the extinction of the mammoth in the polar
regions, but would afford no reason for its equal extirpation in lower latitudes;
hut if sudden and violent, and attended by a general inundation, the temperature
preceding this catastrophe may have been warm, and that immediately succeeding
it intensely cold ; and the cause producing this change of climate may also have
produced an inundation, sufficient to destroy and bury in its ruins the animals
which then inhabited the surface of the earth.
I shall conclude these observations with quoting in liis own words the opinions
of Cuvier, which have always appeared to me the most correct and most philosophical
that have been yet advanced upon this subject*.
* Tout rend done extrêmement probable que les elcphans qui ont fourni les os fossiles habitoieiit
et vivoient dans les pays où l’on trouve aujourd’hui leurs ossemens.
Ils n’ont pu y disparoître que par une révolution qui a fait périr tous les individus existans alors,
ou par un changement de climat qui les a empêché de s’y propager.
Mais quelle qu’ait été cette cause, elle a dû être subite les os et l’ivoire si parfaitement conservés
dans les plaines de la Sibérie, ne le sont que par le froid qui les y congèle, ou qui en général
arrête l ’action des élémens sur eux. Si ce froid n’étoit arrivé que par degrés et avec lenteur, ces
ossemens, et à plus forte raison les parties molles dont ils sont encore quelquefois envelopjiés,
auroient eu le temps de se décomposer comme ceux que l’on trouve dans les pays chauds et tempérés.
Il auroit été surtout bien impossible qu’un cadavre tout entier, tel que celui que M. Adam» à
découvert, eût conservé ses chairs et sa peau sans corruption, s’il n ’avoit été enveloppé immédiatement
par les glaces qui nous l'ont conservé.
Ainsi toutes les hypothèses d’un refroidissement graduel de la terre, ou d’une variation lente,
soit dans l’inclinaison, soit dans la position de l'axe du globe, tombent d’elles-mêmcs.
Cuvîer, Ossemens Fossiles, 1821, lom. i. p. 203.
M E X IC A N BE ES.
S O M E A C C O U N T O F T H E H A B I T S O F A M E X I C A N B E E ,
PARTLY FROM THE NOTES OF CAPTAIN BEECHEY: WITH A DESCRIPTION OF THE INSECT AND
OF ITS HIVE, BY E. T. BENNETT, ESQ., F.L.S., &C.
I n the hives of the domesticated bees of Mexico we meet with a structure
altogether peculiar. They exhibit little of the regularity of construction which
characterizes the hives of the bees of the old continent, and are far inferior in this
respect to the habitations of wasps. In one particular they approximate to the
nests of the European humble bees; the honey which they contain is deposited
in large bags distinct from the common cells. It is somewhat singular that so
interesting a point of natural history has never been particularly noticed; our
previous knowledge scarcely extending beyond the facts, that some of the bees of
America form nests, like those of wasps, attached to, or suspended from trees,
and covered by an outer case constructed by themselves ; while others, incapable
apparently of forming this outer crust for their hives, seek cavities ready formed
for their reception, and in them construct their habitations. Instances of each of
these kinds of hives are mentioned by Piso in his Natural History of both the
Indies (page 112); and Hernandez, in his history of Mexico (Lib. ix. p. 133),
states, that the Indians keep bees analogous to ours, which deposit their honey in
the hollows of trees. Little information beyond that furnished by these older
writers is contained in more modern works ; and even the Baron Von Humboldt,
to whose acute observation science is indebted for so many discoveries respecting
the New World, appears not to have noticed, with his usual care, the peculiarities
of its bees. Had that distinguished traveller directed his attention to the habits
of the species which he collected during his memorable journey, M. Latreille
would doubtless have given to us the necessary details in his excellent Monograph
of the American Bees, included in the Observations Zoologiques of M. Humboldt.
In the valuable essay prefixed to this Monograph, M. Latreille has collected from
authors numerous statements relating to the habitations of bees, and especially of
those of America; but has added to them no new facts as regards the hives of
the New World. The subject may, therefore, be regarded as altogether novel,
and as requiring some little detail in its explanation.
I l l the domestication of the bees of Mexico but little violence is done to their
natural habits. Inhabitants, in their wild state, of cavities in trees, a hollow tree
is selected to form their hive. A portion of it, of between two and three feet in