ELEPHANT OF THE LENA. 141 



consumed the few provisions they had, they 

 separate cheerfully, carrying each other's com- 

 pliments to their acquaintance, and trusting to 

 Providence for another meeting. The Tungusians 

 inhabiting the coast, differ from the former in 

 having more regular and fixed habitations, and 

 in collecting together at certain seasons for fishing 

 and hunting. During winter, they inhabit cottages 

 built side by side, so that they form villages. 



" It is to one of these annual trips that we owe 

 the discovery of the Mammoth. Towards the 

 end of the month of August, when the fishing 

 season in the Lena is over, Schumachof generally 

 goes with his brothers to the peninsula of Tamut, 

 where they employ themselves in hunting, and 

 where the fresh fish of the sea offer them a whole- 

 some and agreeable food. In 1799? he had con- 

 structed for his wife some cabins on the banks of 

 the lake Oncoul, and had embarked to seek along 

 the coasts for Mammoth horns. One day he 

 perceived among the blocks of ice a shapeless 

 mass, not at all resembling the large pieces of 

 floating wood which are commonly found there. 

 To observe it nearer, he landed, climbed up a 

 rock, and examined this new object on all sides, 

 but without being able to discover what it was. 



" The following year, (1800,) he found the 

 carcase of a Walrus ( Trichecus Rosmarus.) lie 

 perceived, at the same time, that the mass lie had 



