150 Journey to the Ffozen Sea, and 



moth was found, was from 35 to 40 toises higli; and, accord- 

 ing to the accoimt of the Touncouscs, the animal when 

 iirst discovered was seven toises from the surface of the 

 ice. 



The whole shora was as it were covered with the most 

 variegated and beautiful plants prorluccd on the shores of the 

 Frozen Sea; but they were only two inches high. Around 

 the carcase we saw a multitude of other plants, such as the 

 Cineraria aquatica and some species of Pediciilaris, not yet 

 known in natural history. 



While waiting for the boats from Terra Firma, for which 

 I had sent some Cossacs, we exerted all our endeavours to 

 erect a monument to perpetuate the memory of this disco- 

 very and of my visit. We raised, according to the cus- 

 tom of these countries, two crosses with analogous inscrip- 

 tions. The one was upon the rock of ice, 40 paces from the 

 shelf from which this mammoth had slid, and the other was 

 upon the very spot where we found it. Each of these crosses 

 is 6 French toises high, and constructed in a manner solid 

 enough to brave the severity of many ages. The Toungouses 

 have given to the one the name of the cross of the Am- 

 bassador, and to the other that of the cross of the Mammoth. 

 The eminence itself received the name of Selichaeta or 

 Mammoth mountain. This last will perhaps some day or 

 other afford some traveller the means of calculating with 

 sufficient precision how much the mountains of ice lo&e 

 annually of their primitive height. 



I iiiade two additional excursions for the purpose of 

 acquiring some more precise notions upon the nature of this 

 peninsula, and my discoveries in zoology and botany per- 

 fectly answered my expectations. I found a great quantity 

 of amber upon the shores ; but in no piece whatever could 

 I discover the least trace of any marine production. I 

 should, perhaps, attribute this to the proximity of the river, 

 and perhaps also to the depth of the sea, or abruptness of the 

 shore. I had occasion to examine more closely the effects of 

 the flux and reflux : this has escaped M. Sauer, who saw no- 

 thing of it at the mouth of the Colima. 



Our Cossacs not having arrived in time with the boat, I 



was 



