Mabch 1, 1899.] 



KNOWLEDGE. 



69 



who spoke of the animal by which it was yielded as 

 " thien-shu," the mouse that hides. This mythical 

 creature, which was compared in size to an elephant, was 

 reported to lead a subterranean existence like a mole, with 

 bones as white as ivory, and the flesh cold, but pure and 

 wholesome. This reference to the coldness of the flesh 

 apparently pointing to their acquaintance with frozen 

 mammoth carcases. 



In Europe, Eginhard, the historian of Charlemagne, 

 states that among the presents sent to the Emperor of the 

 West by the Kalif Haroun-al-Easchid in the year 807 were 

 the horn of a " licorne " and the claw of a griflbn. These 

 rarities were long preserved in the royal treasury at St. 

 Denis ; and, from a description given in a work dated 

 1646, it appears that while the former was a mammoth 

 tusk, the latter was the horn of the wooUy Siberian 

 rhinoceros. 



During the ninth or tenth century* Arab traders appear 

 to have established a trade-route from Northern Eussia or 

 Siberia to Persia or Syria ; and their records refer to the 

 occurrence of buried ivory near the city of Bolghari, on the 

 Volga, which was probably situated on or near the site of 

 the modern Xijui-Xovogorod. The first Siberian mammoth 

 tusk imported into ^Yestern Europe in modern times was 

 brought to London in the year 1611 by one Josias Logan, 

 by whom it had been purchased from the Samoyedes of 

 the Pechora district. Concerning this specimen, Baron 

 Nordeuskiold writes that as Englishmen at that time 

 visited Moscow frequently, and for long periods, a remark 

 occurring in Purchas s history appears to indicate that 

 fossil ivory first became known in the capital of Russia 

 sometime after the conquest of Siberia. 



Be this as it may, it is in evidence from the account of 

 Avril, who travelled in Eussia during 1685, that fossil 

 ivory was at that time imported into China and other 

 Asiatic countries, where it was highly esteemed ; and it 

 is stated that it was largely employed by Turks and 

 Persians for ornamenting sword and dagger hilts, being 

 preferred to Indian ivory on account of its whiter colour 

 and finer grain. And here it may be incidentally men- 

 tioned that, according to the same author, the Eussian 

 term ynammout is a corruption of the Hebrew heliemot, or 

 behemoth, which the Arabs make nwliemot. Canon Tristram 

 is, however, of opinion that in the Bible behemoth often 

 refers to the hippopotamus : and, if this be correct, a 

 transference of the name would appear to have been made 

 by the Arabs, this being the less improbable since it is 

 stated in Hebrew to be applicable to any large beast. 



Apart from this there is a record that about 1722 Peter 

 the Great ordered the collection of tusks and other remains 

 of the mammoth for the museum at St. Petersburg. And 

 between 17-50 and 1770 a Russian trader, named Liakhoff, 

 established an extensive importation of mammoth ivory 

 from the districts lying between the Khotanga and Anadyr 

 rivers, and likewise from one of the southernmost islands 

 of the New Siberian group, which still bears his own name. 

 Surveys subsequently made by the CTOvernment in those 

 islands indicated that the soil is teeming with the bones, 

 tusks, and teeth of mammoths ; while the adjacent mud- 

 banks exposed at low tide are equally prolific. Some idea 

 of their abundance may be gathered from the account given 

 by Dr. Bunge, who visited Liakhoff Island from 1882 to 

 1881, and in the course of three short summers collected 

 no less than two thousand five hundred selected specimens. 

 In the New Siberian Islands the thermometer now often 

 falls to fifty degrees Centigrade below freezing point, so 

 that collecting is an impossibility during the winter. 



• Ur. Trouessart gires the former, and Sir H. Howortli the latter. 



With regard to the amount of mammoth ivory that 

 comes into the market, accounts are by no means so 

 numerous nor so accurate as might be desired. It is stated, 

 however, that in 1821 a Yakut brought back five hundred 

 puds (forty pounds to the pud) from the New Siberian 

 Islands ; and between the years 182-5 and 1831 the amount 

 annually sold in Yakutsk ranged between one thousand 

 five hundred and two thousand pud, in addition to that 

 disposed of at other towns. Many writers speak of seeing 

 boat-loads of tusks on the Lena and Yenisei — a steamer 

 which carried Baron Nordenskiold in 1875 having a cargo of 

 over one hundi-ed. About the year 1840, Dr. Middendorff, 

 who visited the country, estimated that the annual output 

 of Siberian ivory reached one hundred and ten thousand 

 pounds, representing at least a hundred individual mam- 

 moths ; so that the total number of animals whose remains 

 have been exported since the conquest of Siberia must be 

 between twenty thousand and thirty thousand. And since 

 Middendorfi's estimate probably errs on the side of being 

 too low, the numbers may have been considerably in excess 

 of this. 



In the London market, according to Mr. Westendarp, 

 one thousand six hundred and thirty fine mammoth tusks 

 were sold during the year 1872, and one thousand one 

 hundred and forty in the following year ; the weight of 

 these varying from one hundred and forty to one hundred 

 and sixty pounds each. Only a small percentage of these 

 were, however, fit for the turner of ivory of high quality; 

 about fourteen per cent, being of the best description, 

 seventeen per cent, of inferior quality but stiU useful, 

 while fifty-four per cent, were bad, and the remaining fif- 

 teen per cent, rotten and worthless. 



According to Dr. Trouessart the price of mammoth ivory 

 in the market at Y'akutsk is twenty-five francs per pud for 

 the highest quality, seventeen and a half francs for the 

 second, and from five to seven francs for the third quality. 

 A small quantity is worked up locally into ornamental and 

 fancy articles of various kinds ; but this industry seems to 

 be a waning one, and more and more of the raw material 

 goes direct to the foreign market. Yakutsk, which is situ- 

 ated on the Lena about midway between its mouth and the 

 frontier of China, and has about five thousand inhabitants, 

 has long been the acknowledged centre of the trade : but 

 it is considered probable that at present the great bulk of 

 the ivory goes to China, and that only a comparatively 

 small portion finds its way into the more distant markets 

 of Europe. The opening up of the country by the Siberian 

 railway may, however, lead to a revolution in this respect, 

 and also inaugurate a new era of prosperity for Y'akutsk 

 and the other Siberian towns. 



With regard to the future development of the trade and 

 the persistence of the supply, it may be remarked that 

 only a small portion of Siberia has hitherto been explored 

 at aU, and that other deposits remain to be discovered. 

 Of those already worked. Dr. Trouessart writes as foUows : — 

 " It is difficult to believe that the enormous quantity of 

 tusks indicated by the masses of bones spoken of by 

 travellers who have visited the archipelagos of Northern 

 Siberia can have been accumulated in the course of only 

 a few centuries. It is most probable that only the surface 

 of these vast bone deposits has hitherto been exploited, 

 and that by excavating the soU to a greater depth, and, if 

 necessary, employing the aid of dynamite to break up the 

 frozen strata, good results will be obtained. 



" If this idea be well founded, and if, as is unfortunately 

 only too probable, the supply of African ivory comes prac- 

 tically to an end at no very distant date, there is every 

 hope of finding a precious reserve in the fossil ivory of 

 Siberia." 



