134 " ELEPHANT OF THE LENA. 



Almost the whole of the ivory-turner's work 

 made in Russia, is from the Siberian fossil ivory, 

 and sometimes the tusks, having hitherto always 

 been found in abundance, are exported from 

 thence, being less in price than the recent. 

 Although for a long series of years, very many 

 thousands have been annually obtained, yet they 

 are still collected every year in great numbers on 

 the banks of the larger rivers of the Russian 

 empire, and more particularly those of farther 

 Siberia. They abound most of all in the Laich- 

 ovian Isles, and on the shores of the Frozen Sea. 

 In digging wells, or foundations for buildings, 

 there are every where discovered the entire 

 skeletons of Elephants, which are very well pre- 

 served in the frozen soil of that country. The 

 instances of these bones being found in the above 

 mentioned regions, and their great numbers, are 

 so frequently stated by Russian travellers, that it 

 may be fairly contended that the number of 

 Elephants now living on the globe, is greatly 

 inferior to the number of those whose bones are 

 remaining in Siberia. 



It is particularly to be noticed, that in every 

 climate, and under every latitude, from the range 

 of mountains dividing Asia, to the frozen shores 

 of the Northern Ocean, Siberia abounds with 

 Mammoth bones. The best fossil ivory is found 

 in the countries near to the Arctic circle, and in 



