The Earth's Shifting Crust by Charles Hapgood - wire of information

246
EARTH'S SHIFTING CRUST
reproduce the stomach analysis by V. N. Sukachev, with
omission of technical botanical terms where possible, and
with omission of bibliographical references to Russian, Ger-
man, and Latin sources, and some shortening of the comment
(410).
We can definitely establish the following types of plants in the
food in the stomach and among the teeth of the Beresovka mammoth
[Latin names are those of the Russian text]:
a. Alopecurus alpinus sin. The remains of this grass are numerous
in the contents of the stomach. A significant portion of it consists of
stems, with occasional remnants of leaves, usually mixed in with other
vegetable remains. ... All these remains are so little destroyed that
one is able to establish with exactitude to what species they be-
long. . . .
Measurements of the individual parts of these plants, when compared
with the varieties of the existing species, showed that the
variety contained in the food was more closely related to that now
found in the forest regions to the south of the tundra than to the
varieties now found in the tundra. Nevertheless, this is an Arctic
variety and is widely spread over the Arctic regions, in North America
and Eurasia. However, in the forested regions it runs far to the south.
b. Beckmannia eruciformis (L.) Host. The florets of this plant are
numerous in the contents of the stomach and usually are excellently
preserved. [The detailed description of the remains (with precise
measurements in millimeters) shows the species to be the same as that
of the present day, although a little smaller, which may be the result of
compaction in the stomach. At the present time the species is widely
prevalent in Siberia and in the Arctic generally. It grows in flooded
meadows or marshes. It is also found in North America, the south of
Europe, and a major part of European Russia (although
it has not
been reported from northern Russia), almost all of Siberia, Japan,
North China, and Mongolia.]
c. Agropyrum cristatum (L.) Bess. Remains of this plant are very
numerous in the contents of the stomach. [They are so well preserved
that there is no doubt as to the exact species. The individual specimens
are slightly smaller than those of the typical more southern
variety growing today, but this could be the result of some reduction
of size because of pressure in the stomach, which is noted in other
cases.]
The finding of these plants is of very great interest. Not only are
they scarcely known anywhere in the Arctic regions, they are even, so
far as I have been able to discover, very rare also in the Yakutsk dis-