296 GEOLOGY. 



ton of a mammoth in the Imperial Museum at St. Peters- 

 burg, the story of which is interesting, both on account 

 of the circumstances under which it was obtained, and 

 the influence which it had upon palseontological re- 

 searches. The story is this: In the year 1799 a Siberi- 

 an fisherman saw a rounded mass projecting from an ice- 

 bank near the mouth of the River Lena. The summer 

 weather so thawed it year after year that in 1803 the 

 enveloping ice was all melted, and the nucleus of this 

 mound-like projection was found to be an enormous ele- 

 phant. Though it had been there not merely centuries, 

 but ages, it was perfectly preserved, so that dogs and 

 wolves fed upon it as upon fresh meat. In the next 

 year, 1804, the fisherman cut off the tusks, which weigh- 

 ed 360 pounds, and sold them. In 1807 an English trav- 

 eler, Mr. Adams, hearing the story, visited the spot, suc- 

 ceeded in collecting all the bones except those of one 

 foot, which were supposed to have been carried off by 

 wolves, and recovered also the tusks. He also found 

 some of the hair and wool, and parts of the skin. The 

 name Mammoth, which was given to this elephant, is a 

 Siberian word meaning earth-beast, the idea of the na- 

 tives being that the mammoths live somewhere under 

 ground, and die whenever they come to the surface and 

 feel the influence of the sun. 



407. Cuvier's Views. The discovery of the Siberian 

 elephant was the occasion of many speculations. At 

 first it was thought that it was transported to this high 

 latitude from India by some accident, and similar re- 

 mains found shortly after in Italy, Germany, etc., were 

 supposed to belong to Carthaginian elephants brought 

 into Europe by the armies of Hannibal ; but Cuvier soon 

 . solved the mystery. He contended that an Indian ele- 

 phant carried to Siberia could not be changed in the 

 transportation, but would remain an Indian elephant still ; 

 and as the bones of the Siberian mammoth showed that 

 it differed essentially in some respects from either spe- 



