Discovery of the Remains of a Mammoth. 131 



The place where I found the mammoth is about 60 

 paces distant from the shore ; and from the fracture of 

 the ice from which it slid it is about 100 paces distant. 

 This fracture 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 elevation 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 archine in thick- 

 ness. 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 

 composition, and also a little covered with moss. At 

 intervals I saw pieces of wood of an enormous size, and 

 of all the species produced in Siberia ; and also mam- 

 moth horns in great quantities frozen between the fis- 

 sures of the rocks. They appeared to be of an asto- 

 nishing freshness. 



It is as curious as it is difficult to explain how all 

 these things are to be found collected here. The inha- 

 bitants of the coast call this kind of wood Adamsohina, 

 and distinguish it from the floating wood, which, de- 

 scending the great rivers of Siberia, falls into the ocean, 

 and is afterwards heaped upon the shores of the Frozen- 

 Sea. This last kind they call Noahsohina. I have seen, 

 in great thaws, large pieces of earth detach themselves 

 from the hillocks, mix with the water, and form thick 

 and muddy torrents, which roll slowly towards the sea. 



