THE MAMMOTH 191 



aright, held the record of farthest north on the 

 Pacific side. On one of these northern trips, 

 to the Kotzebue Sound region, famous for the 

 abundance of its deposits of mammoth bones,* 

 the Corwin carried Mr. Townsend, then natu- 

 ralist to the United States Fish Commission. 

 At Cape Prince of Wales some natives came 

 on board bringing a few bones and tusks of 

 the mammoth, and upon being questioned as 

 to whether or not any of the animals to which 

 they pertained were living, promptly replied 

 that all were dead, inquiring in turn if the 

 white men had ever seen any, and if they 

 knew how these animals, so vastly larger than 

 a reindeer, looked. 



Fortunately, or unfortunately, there was on 

 board a text-book of geology containing the 

 well-known cut of the St. Petersburg mam- 

 moth, and this was brought forth, greatly to 

 the edification of the natives, who were de- 

 lighted at recognizing the curved tusks and 

 the bones they knew so well. Next the na- 



* Elephant Point, at the mouth of the Buckland River, is so 

 named from the numbers of mammoth bones which have accumu- 

 lated there. 



