304 



THE VOYAGE OE THE VEGA. 



[chap. 



attention, as appears from Logan's remark in a letter to Hak- 

 luyt, that one would not have dreamed to find such wares in the 

 region of the Petchora (Purchas, iii. p. 546). As Englishmen 

 at that time visited Moscow frequently, and for long periods, 

 this remark appears to indicate that fossil ivory first became 

 known in the capital of Russia some time after the conquest of 

 Siberia. 



I have not, indeed, been successful during the voyage of the 

 Vega in making any remarkable discovery that would throw 

 light on the mode of life of the mammoth,^ but as we now sail 



RESTORED FORM OF THE MAMMOTH. 



After Jukes, The Sindent's Manual of Geology, Edinburgh, If 62 



forward between shores probably richer in such remains than any 

 other on the surface of the globe, and over a sea, from whose 

 bottom our dredge brought up, along with pieces of driftwood, 

 half-decayed portions of mammoth tusks, and as the savages 

 with whom we came in contact, several times offered us very 

 fine mammoth tusks or tools made of mammoth ivory, it may 

 not perhaps be out of place here to give a brief account of 

 some of the most important mammoth ^wf/s which have been 



^ As will be stated in detail further on, there were found during the 

 Vega expedition very remarkable sub-fossil animal remains, not of the 

 mammoth, however, but of various different species of the whale. 



