July 30, 1903; 



NATURE 



297 



THE NEW MAMMOTH AT ST. PETERSBURG. 



THE new mammoth just mounted for exhibition 

 in the Zoological Museum at St. Petersburg, 

 is a triumph of the taxidermist's art. The frozen 

 skin has been cleaned, softened, and prepared. The 

 skeleton, and as many of the surrounding soft tissues 



I 



Fig. I.— Front view of Mammoth in frozen earth ob the banks of the Beresowka, Jakutsk, showing 

 the bent fore limbs widely spread. From pho«ograph by Dr. O. Herz. 



as possible, have been carefully removed from its 

 interior and preserved separately. The animal has 

 been actually stuffed like a modern quadruped, and 

 placed in the attitude in which it originally died. 

 The skin of the head and the ears are artificial, copied 

 from the famous old specimen obtained a century ago 

 by Adams. A model of the base of the proboscis has 

 also been added. The skin of the 

 trunk and limbs, however, is nearly 

 complete, only embellished in parts 

 by the addition of a little wool and 

 hair from other specimens; and 

 some deficiencies are covered by the 

 surrounding mount, which repre- 

 sents the morass into which the 

 animal slipped. The well-preserved 

 tail is especially noteworthy, and 

 bears a large tassel of long black 

 hair at its tip. The animal is a 

 young male of rather small size. 



The hopelessly-struggling aspect 

 of this mammoth is very striking, 

 and reproduces exactly the attitude 

 of the carcase as it lay buried in the 

 Siberian tundra. In fact, the chief 

 value of the specimen depends upon 

 the circumstance that it was scien- 

 tifically disinterred, photographed at 

 various stages in the excavation, and 

 carefully preserved by the best 

 modern methods. Great credit is 

 due to Dr. Otto Herz, the leader of 

 the expedition organised by the St. 

 Petersburg Imperial Academy of 

 Sciences, who undertook the arduous task of securing 

 the carcase and transporting it to the Russian capital. 

 His are the only photographs hitherto obtained of a 

 mammoth buried in the tundra, and they throw im- 

 portant new light on the question of the conditions 

 under which these large quadrupeds were destroyed 

 and entombed. Some of Dr. Herz's photographs have 



lately been presented by Dr. Salensky to the Britisn 

 Museum, and two of them are reproduced in the 

 accompanying figures. 



The carcase in question was exposed by a landslip 

 on the bank of the River Beresowka, an affluent of 

 the Kolyma, in the Government of Jakutsk, in latitude 

 67° 32' N. The head was entirely uncovered, so tnat 

 the foxes and other carnivores ate 

 its soft parts, while the inhabitants 

 of a neighbouring village removed a 

 tusk. The Governor of Jakutsk, 

 however, succeeded in keeping the 

 remainder of -the specimen undis- 

 turbed until the arrival of the ex- 

 pedition from the Academy. It was 

 buried partly in ice, partly in frozen 

 sand and gravel, and there was a 

 sufllicient covering of earth to prevent 

 its naturally thawing. 



According to the general report 

 published by Dr. Herz,' he began to 

 excavate the specimen from the front. 

 In this manner he soon discovered 

 the two fore limbs spread widely 

 apart, and sharply bent at the wrist, 

 as shown in the first photograph 

 (Fig. i). Proceeding backwards on 

 the left side, he unexpectedly met 

 with the hind foot almost at once, 

 and it gradually became evident that 

 the hind limbs were completely 

 turned forwards beneath the body, 

 as shown in the second photograph 

 (Fig. 2). Dr. Herz then removed 

 the skull, and found the well-preserved tongue hang- 

 ing out of the mandible. He also noticed that the 

 mouth was filled with grass, which had been cropped, 

 but not chewed and swallowed. Further examination 

 of the carcase showed that the cavity of the chest was 

 filled with clotted blood. It is therefore natural to 

 conclude that the animal was entrapped by falling 



. — Left and partly posterior view of the same specimen, showing the bent left fore limb and 

 the left hind limb turned forwards beneath the body. From photograph by Dr. O. Herz. 



NO. 1761, VOL. 68] 



into a hole, and suddenly died from the bursting of 

 a blood-vessel near the heart while making an effort 

 to extricate itself. As shown by the recent researches 



1 " Berichte des Letters der von der kaiserlichen Akademie der 

 Wissenschaften zur Ausgrabung eines Mammuth-kadavers an die Kolyma- 

 Beresowka au^gesandten Expedition " (St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, 

 1902). 



