658 PROIiOSCIDEA. 



Mammoth, and say it is enormously large, four or five j-ards high ; that 

 it has a long broad head and feet hke a bear, that it lives and dwells 

 under the earth, digging out a passage with its tusks. It seeks its food 

 in the swamps, but dies when it touches sandy ground, perishing when 

 it ascends into the outer air." The Russian explorer, Pallas, describes 

 the heaps of bones he saw in his travels. In 1799, an entire carcass of a 

 Mammoth was found in Siberia, near the mouth of the Lena Unfor- 

 tunately it was not till 1806 that it was scientifically examined hy Pro- 

 fessor Adams of Moscow. The Siberians had cut it up, and used its 

 flesh as food for their dogs. The bears and other carnivorous animals 

 had also consumed a great part of it, but a portion of the skin and one 

 ear remained still untouched. He was able to distinguish the pupil of the 

 eye, and the brain was also to be recognized. The skeleton was still 

 entire, with the exception of one fore-foot. The neck was still clothed 

 with a thick mane ; and the skin was covered with blackish hairs and a 

 sort of reddish wool in such abundance that what remained of it could 

 only be carried with difficulty by ten men. Besides this, they collected 

 more than thirty pounds weight of long and short hair that the White 

 Bears had buried in the damp ground after they had devoui-ed its flesh. 

 The remains of this animal, which came to light when buried in the ice 

 for probably many thousand years, are preserved in the Museum of the 

 Academy of St. Petersburg. 



This discovery excited considerable discussion among naturalists. 

 The creatures had evidently lived in Siberia wiicn the climate was less 

 arctic. Whetlier their destruction was caused by a sudden change in 

 the inclination of the earth's axis producmg an arctic climate, or whether 

 it arose from some vast deluge, may be still disputed. 



THE MASTODON. 



The Mastodon, Elcphas mastodon, lived about the saine time as the 

 Mammoth. Ten or twelve species have been discovered in Europe, 

 North and South America, and India. The United States are peculiarly 

 rich in its remains; one species, the Gigantic Mastodon discovered in 

 Ohio, has been, indeed, reconstructed. Barton relates that in 1761 the 

 Indians had found five mammoth skeletons, near the heads of which, the 

 finders declared, w^ere " long noses with a mouth below them." Kalen 



