Many, however, seem to have little idea of the extent of these remains in the Arctic regions. They are not all thus perfectly preserved, for thousands of skeletons are found in localities where the ground thaws out somewhat in the short summer, and here of course, the skin and tissues could not remain intact. Remains of these beasts occur in only a little less abundance over all Western Europe, and the mammoth also in North America, well preserved specimens having been obtained from the Klondike region of Alaska; and there is nothing to forbid the idea that many, if not most of these latter specimens were also at one time enshrined as "mummies" in the ice, which has since melted over the more temperate regions. But we must confine ourselves to the remains in Siberia. Flower and Lydekker tell us that since the tenth century at least, these remains have been quarried for the sake of the ivory tusks, and a regular trade in this fossil ivory, in a state fit for commercial purposes, has been carried on "both eastward to China, and westward to Europe," and that "fossil ivory has its price current as well as wheat." "They are found at all suitable places along the whole line of the shore between the mouth of the Obi and Behring Straits, and the further north the more numerous do they become, the islands of New Siberia being now one of the favorite collecting localities. The soil of Bear Island and of Liachoff Islands is said to consist only of sand and ice with such quantities of mammoth bones as almost to compose its chief substance. The remains are not only found around the mouths of the great rivers, as would be the case if the carcasses had been washed down from more southern localities in the interior of the continent, but are imbedded in the frozen soil in such circumstances as to indicate that the animals had lived not far from the localities in which they are now found, and they are exposed either by the melting of the ice in unusually warm summers, or by the washing away of the sea cliffs or river banks by storms or floods. In this way the bodies of more or less nearly perfect animals, even standing in the erect position, with the soft parts and hairy covering entire, have been brought to light."[64] But these remains of the mammoth, though the best known, are not the only ones attesting extraordinary conditions: though of course in warmer latitudes we do not find perfect "mummies" with the hide and flesh preserved untainted. Let us go to a warmer climate, to Sicily, and read a description of the remains of the hippopotamus found there. I quote from Sir Joseph Prestwich: