ELEPHANT OF THE LENA. 135 



he most eastern regions, which are much colder 

 lhan the parts of Europe under the same latitude, 

 and where the soil in their very short summer, is 

 thawed only at the surface, and in some years not 

 at all. 



In the year 1805, when the Russian expedition 

 under Krusenstern, returned for the third time to 

 Kamschatka, Patapof, master of a Russian ship 

 bringing victualling stores from Okhotsk, related 

 that lie had lately seen a Mammoth Elephant dug 

 up on the shores of the Frozen Ocean, clothed 

 with a hairy skin ; and shewed, in confirmation 

 of the fact, some hair three or four inches long 

 of a reddish black colour, a little thicker than 

 horse hair, which he had taken from the skin of 

 the animal: this he gave to me, and I sent it to 

 Professor Blumenbach. No farther knowledge 

 has been obtained on this subject, and unfortu- 

 nately Patapof was not employed by any of our 

 societies to return to Siberia. Thus has this 

 curious fact been consigned to oblivion ; nor 

 should we now possess any information respecting 

 the carcass of the Mammoth, which forms more 

 particularly the subject of this memoir, if the 

 rumour of its discovery had not reached Mr 

 Adams, a man of great ardour in pursuit of 

 science, who undertook the labour of a journey 

 to these frozen regions, and of preparing these 

 gigantic remains, and transporting them to a great 

 distance 



