VOL. XXXV.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 243 



from Siberia, found it to be true ivory. He adds, that the most sensible 

 among the Russians affirm them to be elephants teeth, brought thither at the 

 time of the deluge. The description of these teeth and bones given by 

 E. Ysbrants Ides, in his Travels from Moscow to China, is still more extensive, 

 and so particular, that his whole passage deserves to be transcribed at length. 



" Among the hills, says he, to the north-east ot Makofskoi, not far from 

 thence, the Mammuth's tongues and legs are found ; as they are also par- 

 ticularly on the shores of the rivers Jenize, Trugan, Mongamsea, Lena, and 

 near Jakutskoi, to as far as the frozen sea. In the spring, when the ice of 

 this river breaks, it is driven in such vast quantities, and with such force by the 

 high swollen waters, that it frequently carries very high banks before it, and 

 breaks off the tops of hills, which falling down, discover these animals whole, 

 or their teeth only, almost frozen to the earth, which thaw by degrees. I 

 had a person with me to China, who annually went out in search of these 

 bones: he told me, as a certain truth, that he and his companions found a 

 head of one of these animals, which was discovered by the fall of such a frozen 

 piece of earth. As soon as he opened it, he found the greatest part of the 

 flesh rotten, but it was not without difficulty, that they broke out his teeth, 

 which were placed before his mouth, as those of the elephant are ; they also 

 took some bones out of his head, and afterwards came to his fore foot, which 

 they cut off, and carried part of it to the city of Trugan, the circufnference of 

 it being as large as that of the waste of an ordinary man. The bones of the 

 head appeared somewhat red, as though they were tinctured with blood. Con- 

 cerning this animal there are very different reports. The old Siberian Russians 

 affirm, that the Mammuth is very like the elephant, with this only difference, 

 that the teeth of the former are firmer, and not so straight as those of the 

 latter. They also are of opinion, that there were elephants in this country 

 before the deluge, when this climate was warmer, and that their drowned 

 bodies floating on the surface of the water of that flood, were at last washed 

 and forced into subterranean cavities : but that after this Noachian deluge, the 

 air, which was before warm, was changed to cold, and that these bones have 

 lain frozen in the earth ever since, and so are preserved from putrefaction, till 

 they thaw and come to light, which is no very unreasonable conjecture ; 

 though it is not absolutely necessary that this climate should have been warmer 

 before the flood, since the carcases of drowned elephants were very likely to 

 float from other places several hundred miles distant, to this country, in the 

 great deluge which covered the surface of the whole earth. Some of these 

 teeth, which doubtless hfive lain the whole summer on the shore, are entirely 

 black and broken, and can never be restored to their former condition; but 



