102 On the Mammoth, 



* The peninsula, of which we have just spoken, is so narrow in 

 some places that the sea is seen on both sides. The rein-deer 

 migrate every year regularly, abandoning these places to proceed 

 by the frozen sea towards Borchaya and Nytjansk, and for this 

 purpose they assemble in large troops towards the autumn*. 

 To follow the chase of these animals with greater success, the 

 Tungusians have divided all the country of this peninsvda into 

 departments separated by paling. They alarm the rein-deer by 

 loud cries, and by dogs which pursue them. The rein-deer 

 frightened by this noise run into the enclosures of the palings, 

 where they are easily taken ; all those which try to escape on 

 the ice are shot by the hunters. 



' The third day of our journey we pitched our tents at some 

 hundred paces distant from the Mammoth, on a hill called 

 Kembisaga-Shaeta.' 



Schumachof related to me nearly in these terms the history of 

 the discovery of the Mammoth. 



* The Tungusians, who are a wandering people, remain but a 

 little time in the same place. Those who live in the forests often 

 take ten years or more to travel over the vast regions between 

 the mountains ; during this time they do not once return to their 

 habitations. Each family lives isolated, and knows no other 

 society. If, during the course of several years, two friends meet 

 by chance, they then communicate to each other their adventures, 

 their diflerent successes in hunting, and the number of skins they 

 have obtained. After having passed some days together, and 

 consumed the few provisions they had, they separate cheerfully, 

 carrying each other's compliments to their acquaintance, and 

 trusting to Providence for another meeting. The Tungusians 

 inhabiting the coast differ from the former in having more re- 

 gular and fixed habitations, and in collecting together at certain 

 seasons for fishing and hunting. During winter tliey inhabit 

 cottages built side by side, so that they form villages. 



' It is to one of these annual trips that we owe the discovery 

 of the Mammoth. Towards the end of the month of August, 



* Sauer Beschreibung der Billingscheti Reise, p. 130. 



