310 



THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 



[chap. 



paper by L. von Schrenck in the BiUlctin of the St. Petersburg- 

 Academy, T. XVI. 1871, p. 147. 



Under the guidance of natives I collected in 1876 at the 

 confluence of the river Mesenkin with the Yenisej, in 71° 28' 

 N.L., some fragments of bones and pieces of the hide of a 

 mammoth. The hide was 20 to 25 millimetres thick and nearly 

 tanned by age, which ought not to appear wonderful, when we 

 consider that, though the mammoth lived in one of the latest 

 periods of the history of our globe, hundreds of thousands, per- 

 haps millions of years have, however, passed since the animal 

 died to which these pieces of skin once belonged. It was clear 

 that they had been washed by the neighbouring river Mesenkin 

 out of the tundra-bank, but I endeavoured, without success, to 

 discover the original locality, which was probably already con- 

 cealed by river mud. In the neighbourhood was found a very 

 line cranium of the musk ox. 



A new and important find was made in 1877 on a tributary 

 of the Lena, in the circle Werchojansk, in 69° N.L. For there 

 was found there an exceedingly well preserved carcase of a 

 rhinoceros {Rhinoceros 3IercJdi, Jaeg.), a diiferent species from 

 the Wilui rhinoceros examined by Pallas. However, before the 

 carcase was washed away by the river, there had only been 

 removed the hair-covered head and one foot.^ Prom the find 

 Schrenck draws the conclusion that this rhinoceros belonged to 

 a high-northern species, adapted to a cold climate, and living in, 

 or at least occasionally wandering to, the regions where the 

 carcase was found. There the mean temperature of the year 

 is now very low,- the winter exceedingly cold ( - 63°'2 has been 

 registered) and the short summer exceedingly warm. Nowhere 

 on earth does the temperature show extremes so widely sepa- 

 rated as here. Although the trees in winter often split with 

 tremendous noise, and the ground is rent with the cold, the 

 wood is luxuriant and extends to the neighbourhood of the Polar 

 Sea, where besides, the winter is much milder than farther in 

 the interior. With respect to the possibility of these large 

 animals finding sufficient pasture in the regions in question, it 



^ The find is described by Herr Czersky in tbe Transactions published by 

 the East Siberian division of the St. Petersburg- Geographical Society ; and 

 subsequently by Dr. Leoiiold von Schrenck in Mem. de VAcad. de St. Peters- 

 bourg, Sen VII. T. XXVI 1. No. 7, 1880. 



- The mean temperature of tlie different months is shown in tlie following 

 table : — 



