146 Journey to the Frozen Sea, and 



*' It 13 to one of these annual excursions of the Toungoa^cs 

 that we are indebted for the discovery of the mammoth. 

 Towards the end of August, when the fishing in the Lena 

 is over, SchoumachofF is in the habit of going along with 

 his brothers to the peninsula of Tumut, where they employ 

 themselves in hunting, and where the fresh fish of the sea 

 furnish them with wholesome and agreeable nourishment. 



** In 1799, he had caused to be built for his women, sonre 

 cabins upon the shores of the lake Onroul j and he himself 

 coasted along the sea shore for the purpose of searching for 

 some mammoth horns. One day he perceived in the midst 

 of a rock of ice an unformed block, which did not at all 

 resemble the floating pieces of wood usually found there. 

 In order to exaimine it more closely, he clambered wp the 

 rock and examined this new object all around; but he could 

 not ascertain what it was. The year following he discovered 

 in the same spot, the carcase of a sea-cow {Tricheais RoS' 

 marus). He perceived at the same time that the mass he- 

 had formerly seen was freer from the ice, and by the side of 

 it he remarked two similar pieces, which be afterwards found 

 were the feet of the mammoth. Abf)ut the close of the next 

 summer, the entire flank of the animal and one of the tuska 

 had distinctly come out from under the ice. Upon his re- 

 turn to the shores of the lake Onroul, he communicated this 

 extraordinary discovery to his wife and some of his friends ; 

 but their manner of regarding the subject overwhelmed him 

 with grief. The old men related on this occasion, that they 

 had heard their forefathers say that a similar monster had 

 formerly shown itself in the same peninsula, and that the 

 whole family of the person who discovered it lud become 

 extinct in a very short time. Tiie mammoth, in conse- 

 quence of this, was unanimously regarded as auguring a fu- 

 ture calamity, and theToungouse chief felt so much inquie- 

 tude from it, that he fell dangerouly ill; but becoming weli 

 acrain, his first ideas suggesteid to him ihe profit he might 

 "•ain by selling the tusks of this aiiimal, w liich were of an 

 extraordinary size and beauty. He therefore gave orders to 

 conceal carefuilv the place where the mammoth was, and to 

 remove all fstrangers from it under various pretexts, charging 



at 



