ii 3 2 THE UNGULATES, OR HOOFED MAMMALS 



the United States, and extending as far south as Texas and Mexico, the place of the 

 mammoth was taken by a closely-allied species or variety, known as the Columbian 

 elephant (E. columbi}. 



That the mammoth lived in Siberia in the area where its frozen remains are 

 found, may be considered certain; and there is considerable evidence to indicate that 

 the climate of these regions was far less inclement than it is at present. This, how- 

 ever, only renders it the more difficult to account for the manner in which its remains 

 were as they must have been frozen up in the soil immediately after death. Sir 

 H. Howorth calls in the aid of a sudden cataclysmal change from heat to extreme cold; 

 but it is somewhat difficult to accept such a theory. However, without some such 

 explanation, the mode of entombment remains a complete puzzle. In Europe the 

 mammoth seems to have made its first appearance before the great cold of the glacial 

 period; a fact, which so far as it goes, is in favor of Sir H. Howorth's view, as tend- 

 ing to show that the creature never inhabited a very cold climate. 



Numerous finds of frozen carcasses of mammoths in the soil of Siberia have 

 been recorded; but it may be pretty safely asserted, that these form only a small 

 proportion of those which have been brought to light by the action of the weather 

 during the historic period. Of the recorded examples, almost the earliest is one 

 found on the river Alasea, in the year 1787; and somewhere about the same time 

 another appears to have been discovered at the mouth of the Lena; while a third 

 occurred in 1805, on the shores of the Polar Sea. The most celebrated of the earlier 

 finds is, however, the one recorded by the naturalist Adams, in 1806, which had 

 been disclosed by the gradual melting of the ice on a peninsula at the mouth of the 

 Lena. The first indication of this carcass was noticed by a native in the year 1799, 

 who observed a hummocky mass in the ice, which melted in the summer of 1801 

 sufficiently to show one tusk and the side of the monster. The carcass was then 

 entire, showing the eyes and trunk well preserved, and the thick coat of wool and 

 hair clothing the skin. During the cold -summer of 1802 the ice melted little, but 

 in the following year the carcass slid down onto a sand bank; and in 1804 a native 

 hacked out and carried off both tusks. It was not till two years later, that Adams 

 arrived on the scene; by which time the dogs of the Yakoots had consumed nearly all 

 the flesh, while one limb had been removed bodily. The rest of the skeleton, 

 together with a large amount of hair, were, however, taken to St. Petersburg, where 

 they are now preserved. 



Another mammoth mummy was discovered in 1840, on a tributary of the 

 Yenisei, and its skeleton taken to the Museum at Moscow. Some long, stiff hair, of 

 a reddish color, found with this specimen, probably belonged to the mane; the ex- 

 istence of such a mane having been proved by the rough sketches made by the 

 Yakoots of Adams's specimen. A half-grown mammoth, with part of the skin 

 remaining, was discovered in 1843 near the river Taimyr, only a comparatively- 

 short distance from the Polar Sea. Some time between 1840 and 1850, a well- 

 preserved carcass was discovered in the circle of Yakutsk, on the banks of the river 

 Kolyma. It had a long mane, extending from the head to the tail; and fragments 

 of twigs, on which the animal had been browsing shortly before its death, were 

 found between its teeth. 



