THE WORLD S WONDERS. 



637 



flowing from the north, seeming to prove that there is, some- 

 where beyond the frozen belt not yet penetrated by man, a warm 

 country, with climate and productions similar to those of the 

 tropics. Along the borders of Siberia the remains of tropical 

 animals are so commonly found as to constitute a considerable 

 source of commerce. In Asiatic Russia there is not a single 

 stream or river on the banks or in the bed of which are not found 

 bones of elephants, or other animals equally strange to that cli- 



DISCOVERY OF THE FROZEN ELEPHANT. 



mate. In 1799 a fisherman of Tongoose, named Schumachoff, 

 discovered a tremendous elephant perfect as when, a thousand 

 yars before, death had arrested its breath encased in a huge block 

 of ice, clear as crystal. This man, like his neighbors, was accus- 

 tomed, at the end of the fishing season, to employ his time in 

 hunting for elephant tusks along the banks of the Lena River, 

 for the sake of the bounty offered by the government ; and while 

 so employed, in the ardor of his pursuit, he passed several miles 

 beyond his companions, when suddenly there appeared before his 



