THE MAMMOTH. 201 



that all we heard said on this subject arises from bare conjecture 

 only." 



But making all allowance for the gross absurdities of these 

 accounts, it is clear that they are based on descriptions — probably 

 by the Tungusian fishermen — of carcases that have been washed 

 out of the frozen soil by rivers in flood time. Now that we 

 are in possession of trustworthy accounts, we can understand 

 how these strange tales arose among an ignorant and superstitious 

 people, such as the fishermen of these inhospitable shores. 



We will now put before the reader the true accounts given by 

 Adams ^ and Benkendorf 



In 1799 ^ Tungusian, named Schumachoff, who generally 

 went to hunt and fish at the peninsula of Tamut after the 

 fishing season of the Lena was over, had constructed for his 

 wife some cabins on the banks of the lake Oncoul, and had 

 embarked to seek along the coasts for Mammoth tusks. One 

 day he saw among the blocks of ice a shapeless mass, but 

 did not then discover what it was. In 1800 he perceived 

 that this object was more disengaged from the ice, and that 

 it had two projecting parts ; and towards the end of the 

 summer of 1801 the entire side of the animal and one of his 

 tusks were quite free from ice. In 1803 the enormous mass 

 fell by its own weight on a bank of sand. It was a frozen 

 Mammoth ! In 1804 Schumachoff came to his Mammoth, and 

 having cut off the tusks, exchanged them with a merchant for 

 goods. Two years afterwards Mr. Adams, the narrator of the 

 story, traversed these distant and desert regions, and found the 

 Mammoth still in the same place, but sadly mutilated. The 

 people of the neighbourhood had cut off the flesh, and fed their 

 dogs with it during the scarcity. Wild beasts, such as white 

 bears, wolves, and foxes, also had fed on it, and the traces of 

 their footsteps were seen around. The skeleton was complete 



^ Abridged from Memoirs of the Imperial Academy of Sciences of S/. 

 Petersburg, vol. v. London, 1819. 



