MAM.\rnTn. 183 



least sc much of them as was left liv the wolves and white bears, were, when liberated by the 

 thawing of the ice (which it took seven of the short summers of that coimtry to effect), secured by 

 Adams, and deposited in the Museimi of St. Petersburg. But the depredations of these beasts of prey 

 had left it imperfect, and some part of the skeleton, as put up, is composed of wooden 

 substitutes for the bones. In fact, so important a point as the number of dorsal vertebrae is even 

 yet attended with doubt, although it is recorded that the spine, a shoulder-blade, the pelvis, and 

 three legs, were still held together by the ligaments to the skin, when the carcass was taken 

 possession of. Full details of what is known on this point will be found in Dr. Falconer's 

 paper, already referred to.* A pleasant writer on Natural History in the present day (Rev. J. G. 

 "Wood) tells us that " opinions differ as to the manner in which the animal (Mr. Adams' Mammoth) 

 got into the ice ; and the question ajjpears to have puzzled the savaiifs, much as the apple dumpling 

 puzzled George the Third. The general oijinion (!) appears to be that the creature must have fallen 

 into a cleft in a glacier, and so have been at once frozen up."t Que diable allait il faire dans cette 

 galere ? We can hardly imagine a Mammoth capering like a chamois over glaciers from peak to 

 peak. 



Another entire specimen of the ]\Iammoth was found by Sarstschew on the banks of the 

 Alascia, which falls into the Arctic Sea to the east of Indigirsha, and had been disengaged from 

 the bank by the action of the river. It stood erect and was still covered ^vith its skin. There 

 are also preserved in the Museum of Paris a morsel of skin and matted hair, and locks of wool, 

 belonging to a third individual, found whole on the banks of the Arctic Sea. 



More than one similar fresh carcass has since been met with in Siberia, one of which was 

 discovered about 18-16, and its soft j)arts were transmitted to St. Petersburg, and made the 

 subject of carefid histological study by Glebow, who published an account of them. J His 

 examination showed nothing new, as why should it ? The fibres and cells of the tissues presented 

 the same anatomical characters as those of living bodies to the most minute degree. M. Glebow 

 says, — " One never ceases wondering at the elementary anatomical parts of the tissues of all the 

 soft j)arts, without even excepting the brain having been preserved in such a degree of in- 

 tegrity, that it is impossible to distinguish them from the same parts of the fresh tissues of 

 living animals. And we see with admiration that a time so prolonged, which rmns the most 

 durable objects, and destroys the most solid things, as metal and granite, has spared the tissues 

 of the animal organism, so tender and delicate, and in their nature so perishable, as the fibres of 

 the brain, the cells of the epithelium, &c." 



From the above materials we know that the Mammoth was of stupendous size, covered with an 

 enormous quantity' of long black hair, mixed at its roots with a thick fleece of reddi.sh wool, not 

 imlike cow's hair. At the removal of Adams' specimen, thirty pounds weight of finer hair, and 

 coarse long hair like horse-hair, was dug up out of the moist soil, into which it had been trodden 

 by the feet of the white bears and wolves when devouring the flesh. It had a great mane, and 

 the ears bore each a long tuft of hair. The tusks of the upper jaw were of tremendous magnitude, 

 but there were none in the under jaw. 



The geographical range of this animal extended from Bhering's Straits, through Arctic Siberia 



* Falconer, "Nat. Hist. Rev. " Jan. 1863, p. 92. 



t Rev. J. G. Wood, " Sketches and Anecdotes of Animal Life," 1855, p. 82. 



J Glebow in " Bulk-tin of the Imperial Society of Moscow," tome xix. p. 109. 



