MAMMOTH. 659 



ous antics. These seem, also, to be alluded to by the ancients 

 under the name of dolphins. 



[Shaw. 



SECTION V. 



Mammoth. 

 Manis megatherium. Cuvier. 



This prodigious animal has a near resemblance to the elephant, 

 but having never been found alive, nor even with its organs in a 

 perfect state after death, we are not able to give its generic cha- 

 racters very accurately. From some late accounts received from 

 St. Petersburgh, it is supposed by some that the animal is still in 

 existence, its carcase having been found nearly fresh, though it 

 has never been seen actually alive. Its residence appears to have 

 been confined to a line in the northern hemisphere, extending from 

 Siberia to the banks of the Ohio ; and the name of the mammoth 

 was first given to the dug-up skeleton of the animal by Siberian 

 peasants. 



The following account, received from St. Petersburgh, is the 

 fullest and most accurate that has hitherto been published ; and re- 

 lates to a specimen found, not indeed alive, but complete, in a 

 state of nearly perfect preservation. 



Schoumachoff, aTungoosechief, about the end of August, 1799, 

 when the fishing in the river Lena was over, repaired according 

 to annual custom to the sea-side. Leaving his family in their huts, 

 he coasted along the shore in quest of mammoth's tusks, and one 

 day perceived in the midst of a rock of ice a large shapeless block, 

 not at all resembling the logs of drift wood commonly found there. 

 He climbed the rock, and examined it all round, but could not 

 ascertain what it was. The next year visiting the same spot, he 

 found the carcase of a sea-cow (trichecus rosmarus ) ; and ob- 

 served, not only that the mass he had seen the year before was 

 freer from ice, but that there were two similar pieces by the side 

 of it. These afterwards turned out to be the feet of the mam- 

 moth. In 1801, the side of' the animal and one of its tusks ap- 

 pearing very distinctly, he acquainted his wife and some of his 

 friends with what he had found. This, however, gave them great 

 alarm, for the old men said, that they had been told by their fore- 



2u2 



