54 TRICIIOLOGIA MAMMALIUM; 



they are not brittle. One of these (Cervus elephns) has hair which stretches | f of an inch 

 with a weight of 480 grains; retains its entire elasticity after stretching -/^ with 230 

 grains; loses $ with 480 grains, and fractures with 490 grains. 



The hair of the Mnsk (Moschus pigmseus of Lin.) is said to be brittle. (See Elem. de 

 Zool., p. 463.) We have no specimen in our cabinet. 



Dr. Gross tells of a lady, the hair of whose head, without any assignable cause, became 

 so brittle that it broke off in locks, about a quarter of an inch beyond the epidermis. 



Of the endurance of the essential properties of Pile. Long separation from the head 

 or body of an animal may impair, but does not destroy, ductility, elasticity and tenacity 

 of pile. 



We have a lock of hair of the head of Prof. Benjamin Silliman, cut when he was twenty 

 years of age, and another cut when he was over seventy. The greatest that one inch of a 

 hair of the former stretches is (with 1,320 grains) ffths of an inch. The latter (with 

 1,770 grains) stretches |fths. The former retains its entire elasticity at ff, with 1,120 

 grains. The latter retains its entire elasticity at ^, with 970 grains. The former loses 

 |^ of its elasticity with 1,770 grains. The latter loses if- of its elasticity with 1,320 grains. 

 The former breaks with 1,320 grains, and the latter with 1,820. 



The hair of His Excellency Gen. Washington had been upwards of fifty years severed 

 from his head when examined, yet it stretched |f with 933 grains, and broke with 1,123. 



The hair of the Hon. John Sergeant has been cut thirty years and more, yet it stretches 

 |f with 710 grains, and breaks with 720. 



The Peruvian, Mexican and Brazilian mummy hairs (which are supposed to be from 

 2,500 to 3,000 years old) stretch and bear considerable weight. (See Table.) And lastly, 

 we have some of the hair of the Mammoth, found enveloped in ice near the mouth of the 

 river Lena, in Siberia, which, with 4,029 grains, stretched -/$ of an inch, and broke 

 with 4,669.* 



* An Examination of the Hair of the Siberian Mammoth, found enveloped in ice, near the mouth of the river Lena, in Siberia. 

 Specimen presented by Eobert W. Gibbs, M. D., of Columbia, South Carolina. 



Our readers will recollect that the latter part of the summer of 1799, a native fisherman of Tungusia, who was in the habit 

 of collecting tusks from among the blocks of ice and rubbish which fell from the cliffs, and were found on the banks of Lake 

 Oncoul, near the mouth of the river Lena, saw, projecting from a great height, a mass of unusual form, but of shapeless 

 appearance. The year after, proceeding to his usual haunt, he noticed that this lump was somewhat disengaged and had 

 two projecting parts; and, towards the summer of 1801, when he again looked at it, he found that it consisted of the whole 

 side of a gigantic animal, having large tusks, one of which projected from the ice. 



But so slowly do changes take place in this ice-bound district, that the next summer being rather colder than the preceding, 

 no material alteration was noticed. In 1803, a part of the ice between the earth and this monster was somewhat more 

 melted, and at length the whole mass fell, by its own gravity, upon a bank of sand. Next year, in the month of March, the 

 fisherman cut off the tusks, which he disposed of for fifty roubles, equal to about $40 of our money. Two years after this, 

 and the seventh after the first discovery, these distant and deserted regions were traversed by Mr. Adams, an employee of 

 the Court of Russia, and his account of the sequel is sufficiently interesting to be given without abridgement. 



He states that he found the mammoth in the position last indicated, but shockingly mutilated. It seems that some sick- 

 ness which the Tungusian had experienced, had been attributed to this bad omen, by his prejudiced countrymen; but with 

 his recovery this prejudice had been dissipated, and no obstacle to approach the carcass remained. 



The first discoverer was contented with his share of the profit arising from the sale of the tusks, and the Jakritski of the 



