JDcscriplion of the Remains of a Mammoth. 151 



was obliged to return to the continent with my rein-deer, 

 without waiting for them. The vessel, in the mean time, 

 had cast anchor in the bay of Borchaya, three hundred 

 wersts from the isthmus where I was. Wc arrived without 

 any accident, after a journey of eight days. A week after- 

 wards I had the satisfaction to see the mammoth arrive. Our 

 first care was to separate, by boiling, the nerves and flesh 

 from the bones ; the skeleton was then packed, and placed 

 at the bottom of the hold. When we arrived at Jakoutsk, 

 I had the good fortune to purchase the tusks of the mam- 

 moth ; and thence I dispatched the whole for St. Peters - 

 burgh. 



A question of some magnitude remains to be resolved : — 

 Are the mammoth and elephant animals of the same 

 species, as asserted by Buffon, Pallas, Isbrand Ides, 

 Gmelin, and, above all, Daubenton ? or should we, in 

 preference, rely upon the opinion of M. Cuvier, who asserts 

 that the mammoth occupies the second place among the 

 extinct species of animals ? As I do not intend, in this 

 place, to make an exact comparison of the skeletons of a 

 mammoth and an elephant, I shall content myself with 

 relating here some characterifitic marks which distinguish 

 the two species : I reserve for a particular memoir some 

 more detailed observations upon this subject. I shall here 

 recapitulate the motives which induced me to adopt the 

 opinion of M . Cuvier. 



1. If the writers whom I have mentioned have actually 

 made, as I suppose, zootomical comparisons, they have 

 been able to do so very incompletely, and upon detached 

 pieces ; for neither the head, nor the whole vertebrae, nor 

 the feet of the mammoth covered with flesh and hair, and 

 furnished with the sole, have ever yet been examined, when 

 collected together, by any writer. 



The presence of the coccyx, which finishes the vertebral 

 column, convinces me that the animal has had a very short 

 and thick tail,'like its feet : besides, its being every where co- 

 vered with bristles induces mc to think that they cannot be 

 Ihose of an ordinary elephant. 



2. The teeth of the mammoth arc harder, heavier, and 



K 1 more 



