126 Journey to the Frozen- Sea, and 



success of their hunting, and the quantity of peltry they 

 have acquired. After having spent some days together, 

 and consumed the little provisions they have, they se- 

 parate cheerfully, charge each other with compliments 

 for their respective friends, and leave it to chance to 

 bring them together again. Such is the way of life of 

 these innocent children of Nature. The Toungouses 

 who inhabit the coast differ from the rest, in having 

 more regularly built houses, and in assembling at cer- 

 tain seasons for fishing and hunting. In winter they in- 

 habit cabins, built close to each other, so as to form 

 small villages. 



"It is to one of these annual excursions of the 

 Toungouses 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 penin- 

 sula of Tumut, where they employ themselves in hunt- 

 ing, 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, 

 some cabins upon the shores of the lake Onroul ; 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 examine it 

 more closely, he clambered up the rock, and examined 

 this new object all around; but he could not ascertain 

 what it was. The year following he discovered, in the 



