Description of the Remains of a Mammoth. 149 



chiefly for the purpose of collecting all the bristles whieh 

 the white bears might have trodden into the wet ground on 

 devouring the flesh. This operation was attended with diffi- 

 culty, as we wanted the necessary instruments for digging the 

 ground : I succeeded however in procuririg in this manner 

 more than one poud weight of bristles. Tn a few days 

 our labour was ended, and I found myself in possession of 

 a treasure, which amply recompensed me for the fatigues 

 and dangers of the journey, and even for the expenses I had 

 incurred. 



The place where I found the mammoth is about 60 paces 

 distant from the shore ; and from ihe fracture of the ice 

 from which it slid it is about 100 paces distant. This frac- 

 ture occupies the middle precisely between the two points of 

 the isthmus, and is three wersts long, and even in the place 

 where the mammoth was, this rock has a perpendicular ele- 

 vation of 30 or 40 toises. Its substance is a clear ice, but 

 of a nauseous taste; it inclines towards the sea; its summit 

 is covered with a bed of moss and friable earth half an ar- 

 chine in thickness. During the heat of the month of July 

 a part of this crust melts, but the other remains frozen. 



Curiosity prompted me to ascend two other hillocks 

 equally distant from the sea; they were of the same compo- 

 sition, and also a little covered with moss. At intervals I 

 saw pieces of wood of an enormous size, and of all the spe- 

 cies produced in Siberia ; and also mammoth horns in great 

 quantities frozen between the fissures of the rocks. They 

 appeared to be of an astonishing freshness. 



It is as curious as it isdiflicult to explain how all these things 

 are to be found collected here. The inhabitants of the coast 

 call this kind of wood Adamsohina, and distinguish it from 

 the floating wood, which descending the great rivers of Si- 

 beria falls into the ocean, and is afterwards heaped upon the 

 shores of the Frozen Sea. This last kind they call Noahso- 

 hina. I have seen in great thaws, large pieces of earth de- 

 tach themselves from the hillocks, mix with the water, and 

 form thick and muddy torrents which roll slowly towards 

 the sea. This earth forms in different places lumps, which 

 sink in among the ice. The block of ice where the mam- 



K 3 moth 



