132 Journey to the Frozen- Sea, and 



This earth forms in different places lumps, which sink 

 in among the ice. The block of ice where the mam- 

 moth was found was from 35 to 40 toises high ; and, 

 according to the account of the Toungouses, the animal, 

 when first discovered, was seven toises from the sur- 

 face of the ice. 



The whole shore was, as it were, covered with the 

 most variegated and beautiful plants produced on the 

 shores of die 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 Pedicularis, 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 en- 

 deavours to erect a monument to perpetuate the me- 

 mory of this discovery and of my visit. We raised, ac- 

 cording to the custom of these countries, two crosses 

 with analogous inscriptions. 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 Mam- 

 moth. The eminence itself received the name of Seli- 

 chaeta, 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 lose annually of their primitive height. 



