2o8 EXTINCT MONSTERS. 



half feet in thickness, and a tail, naked up to the end, which was 

 covered with thick tufty hair. The animal was fat and well- 

 grown ; death had overtaken him in the fulness of his powers. 

 His parchment-like, large, naked ears, lay fearfully turned over 

 the head ; about the shoulders and the back he had stiff hair, 

 about a foot in length, like a mane. The long outer hair was 

 deep brown and coarsely rooted. The top of the head looked 

 so wild, and so penetrated with pich^ that it resembled the rind 

 of an old oak tree. On the sides it was cleaner, and under the 

 outer hair there appeared everywhere a wool, very soft, warm 

 and thick, and of a fallow-brown colour. The giant was well 

 protected against the cold. The whole appearance of the animal 

 was fearfully strange and wild. It had not the shape of our 

 present elephants. As compared with our Indian elephants, its 

 head was rough, the brain-case low and narrow, but the trunk 

 and mouth were much larger. The teeth were very powerful. 

 Our elephant is an awkward animal, but compared with this 

 Mammoth it is as an Arabian steed to a coarse, ugly dray-horse. 

 I could not divest myself of a feeling of fear as I approached the 

 head ; the broken, widely-open eyes, gave the animal an appear- 

 ance of life, as though it might move in a moment and destroy us 

 with a roar. . . . The bad smell of the body warned us that it 

 was time to save of it what we could, and the swelling flood, too, 

 bid us hasten. First of all we cut off the tusks, and sent them 

 to the cutter. Then the people tried to hew off the head, but 

 notwithstanding their good will, this work was slow. As the belly 

 of the animal was cut open the intestines rolled out, and then the 

 smell was so dreadful that I could not overcome my nauseous- 

 ness, and was obliged to turn away. But I had the stomach 

 separated, and brought on one side. It was well filled, and the 

 contents instructive and well preserved. The principal were 

 young shoots of the fir and pine ; a quantity of young fir-cones, 

 also in a chewed state, were mixed with the mass. ... As we were 

 ' " Und mit Pech so durchgcdrungen." 



