50 THE MAMMOTH. 



Isbrant Ides, an intrepid Russian traveler, explored the 

 principal regions of Northern Asia, and in 1692 reported 

 that "amongst the hills, which are situated north-east 

 of the river Kata, the mammuts' tongues and legs are 

 found, as they are also particularly on the shores of the 

 river Jenize, Trugan, Mongamsea, Lena, and near Jakut- 

 skoi, even as far as the Frozen Ocean. In the spring, 

 "when the ice of this river breaks, it is driven in such vast 

 quantities and with such force by the high swollen waters, 

 that it frequently carries very high banks before it, and 

 breaks off the tops of hills, which, falling down, discover 

 these animals whole, or their teeth onl}^, almost frozen to 

 the earth, which thaw by degrees. I had a person with 

 me who had annually gone out in search of these bones ; 

 he told it to me as a real truth, that he and his companions 

 found the head of one of these animals, which was discov- 

 ered by the fall of such a frozen piece of earth. As soon 

 as he opened it, he found the greatest part of the flesh 

 rotten, but it was not without difficulty that they broke 

 out his teeth, which were placed in the fore-part of his 

 mouth, as those of the elephants are ; they also took some 

 bones out of his head, and afterwards came to the fore- 

 foot, which they cut off, and carried part of it to the city 

 of Trngan, the circumference of it being as large as that 

 of the waist of an ordinary man. The bones of the head 

 appeared somewhat red, as though they were tinctured 

 with blood." 



This traveler further informs us that the old Siberian 

 Russians affirmed " that there were elephants in this coun- 

 try before the Deluge, when this climate was warmer, and 

 that their drowned bodies, floating on the surface of the 

 water of that flood, were at last washed and forced into 

 subterranean cavities ; but that after this universal deluge, 

 the air, which before was warm, was changed to cold, and 

 that these bones have lain frozen in the earth ever since, 



