or Fossil Elephant. 101 



' The contrary winds which had prevailed during the whole 

 summer, delayed my departure from Kuma: this place was 

 then inhabited by forty or fifty Tungusian families, who were ge- 

 nerally employed in fishing, 8fc. 



' The wind having at length changed, I determined to pur- 

 sue my journey, and passed my rein-deer across the river. The 

 next day at sun-rise I set off", accompanied by the Tungusian 

 chief Ossip Schumachof, the merchant of Kuma-Surka, Bell- 

 kofF, my hunter, three Kossaks, and ten Tungusians. The 

 Tungusian chief was the person who had first discovered the 

 Mammoth, and who was proprietor of the territory through 

 which our route lay. The merchant of Kuma-Surka had passed 

 almost all his life on the shores of the Frozen Sea ; his zeal and 

 the advice he gave me have the strongest claim to my gratitude, 

 and I even owe to him the preservation of my life in a moment 

 of danger. 



' We passed in our way over high steep mountains, valleys 

 which followed the course of small brooks, and dry and wild 

 plains, where not a shrub was to be seen. After two days' tra- 

 velling we arrived at the shores of the Frozen Ocean. The 

 Tungusians called it Angardam, or Terra Firma. To reach the 

 Mammoth we were obliged to traverse a peninsula, called 

 Byschofskoy-Mys or Tamut. This peninsula, which stretches- 

 into a spacious gulf, is on the right of the mouth of the Lena, 

 and extends, as I was informed, from south-east to north-west, 

 for the length of 80 wersts, (about 53 miles.) The name is^ 

 probably derived from two points like horns, which are at the 

 northern end of the promontory. The point on the left, which 

 the Russians more especially call Byschofskoy-Mys, on account 

 of its greater extent, forms three large gulfs, where are some 

 Jakutsk settlements : the opposite point, called Manstai, on ac- 

 count of the great quantity of floating wood found on its shore, 

 is of half the size ; the bank is lower, and this canton is com- 

 pletely inhabited. The distance from one point to the other is 

 reckoned at 45 wersts (30 miles.) Hills form the more elevated 

 part of the peninsula of Tamut. The rest is occupied by lakes > 

 and all the low lands are marshy, Scaf^ 



