386 On the Mammoth and the Mastodon. 



beasts, such as white bears, wolves, wolverenes, and foxes, also fed 

 upon it, and the traces of their footsteps were seen around." The 

 skeleton, almost entirely cleared of its flesh, remained whole, with 

 the exception of one fore-leg, (probably dragged off by the bears.) 

 The spine, from the skull to the os coccygis, one scapula, the pel- 

 vis, and the three remaining extremities, were still held together 

 by the ligaments, and by parts of the skin. The head was covered 

 with a dry skin ; one of the ears, well preserved, was furnished 

 with a tuft of hair. The point of the lower lip- had been gnawed ; 

 and the upper one, with the proboscis, having been devoured, the 

 molar teeth could be perceived. The brain was still in the cra- 

 nium, but appeared dried up. The parts least injured were one 

 fore-foot and one hind-foot ; they were covered with skin, and had 

 still the sole attached. According to the assertion of the Tungu- 

 sian discoverer, the animal was so fat that its belly hung down 

 below the joints of the knees. This mammoth was a male, with 

 a long mane on the neck ; the tail was much mutilated, only eighty 

 out of twenty-eight or thirty caudal vertebrse, remaining ; the pro- 

 boscis was gone, but the places of the insertion of its muscles 

 were visible on the skuil. The skin, of which about three-fourths 

 was saved, was of a dark gray colour, covered with a reddish 

 wool, and coarse long black hairs. The dampness of the spot 

 where the animal had lain so long had in some degree destroyed 

 the hair. The entire skeleton, from the fore part of the skull to 

 the end of the mutilated tail, measured sixteen feet four inches ; 

 its heio-ht w^as nine feet four inches. The tusks measured along 

 the curve nine feet six inches, and in a straight line from the base 

 to the point three feet seven inches. 



Mr. Adams collected the bones, and had the satisfaction io find 

 the other scapula, which had remained not far off. He next de- 

 tached the skin on the side an which the animal had lain, which 

 was well preserved ; the weight of the skin was such that ten per- 

 sons found great diflaculty in transporting it to the shore. After 

 this, the ground was dug in different places, to ascertain whether 

 any of its bones were buried, but principally to collect all the 

 hairs, which the white bears had trod into the ground while de- 

 vouring the flesh, and more than thirty-six pounds' weight of hair 

 were thus recovered. The tusks were repurchased at Jatusk, and 

 the whole expedited thence to St. Petersburg ; the skeleton is now 



