754 GEOLOGY. 



not understand, and which was at such an elevation as to be beyond his reach. The bank 

 consisted of frozen earth covered with ice partially thawing in the summer season. 

 Returning to the same spot the succeeding year. 1800, he observed the object rather 

 more disengaged, but still could not determine what it was ; but towards the end of the 

 summer of 1801, he could distinctly see that it was the frozen carcase of an enormous 

 animal, the entire flank of which, and one of the tusks, had become exposed. The 

 summer of 1802 was cold, and the animal remained in much the same state: but that of 

 1803 was warmer than usual; and, the ice melting largely, the carcase became entirely 

 disengaged, and fell down from the crag on a sand-bank forming part of the coast of the 

 Arctic Ocean. In March 1804, Schumachoff came to the mammoth, carried off the tusks, 

 which he sold to a merchant for the value of fifty rubles. In 1806 the seventh year from 

 the discovery Mr. Adams, travelling in that distant and desert region, on an embassy to 

 China with Count Golovkin, examined the animal, which still remained on the sand-bank 

 where it had fallen, but in a greatly mutilated condition. The wandering fishermen had 

 taken away large quantities of the flesh to feed their dogs ; the wild animals, white bears, 

 wolves, wolverines, and foxes had also feasted on the carcase ; but the skeleton remained 

 quite entire, with the exception of one of the fore-legs. The entire spine, the pelvis, one 

 shoulder blade, and three legs were still held together by their ligaments, and by some 

 remains of the skin ; the pupils of the eyes were still distinguishable ; the brain remained 

 within the skull, but a good deal shrunk and dried ; and one of the ears was in excellent 

 preservation, still retaining a tuft of strong bristly hair. The animal was a male, and 

 had a long mane on the neck, but was not one of the largest size. The skin was ex- 

 tremely thick and heavy, and as much was undestroyed as required the exertions of ten 

 men to remove, which they accomplished with difficulty. Mr. Adams had the good for- 

 tune to re-purchase the tusks from the merchant to whom they had been sold, and finally 

 transported the whole skeleton to Petersburg, where it now is, in the museum of the 

 Academy, exhibiting the following dimensions, 9 feet 4 inches high, 16 feet 4 inches 

 long, exclusive of the tusks, which are 9 feet 6 iftches, measuring along the curve. The 

 hair of the mammoth appears to have consisted of strong bristles, a foot or more in length, 

 with another kind, more flexible, and a third, a reddish brown wool, growing among 

 the roots of the long hair. Cuvier remarks upon this fact, as an undeniable proof that 

 the animal belonged to a race of elephants with which we are now unacquainted, by no 

 means adapted to dwell in the torrid zone, but adapted to a temperature which would 

 soon be fatal to the existing Asiatic and African races from its cold. We shall, subse- 

 quently, notice this consideration of climate, merely remarking, that the high latitudes 

 now abounding with the " thick-ribbed ice" appear to have sustained an immense number 

 of these colossal quadrupeds. There are islands in the Arctic Ocean, where the bones of 

 the mammoth occur in prodigious abundance, which show no marks of detrition by a far 

 transportation, and prove the exuberance of the race in the localities where their remains 

 are found. 



Mastodon. The animals of this proboscidian tribe constitute a distinct genus, of which 

 there are no living species, but they are more nearly allied to the 

 elephant than to any other existing race. The name is a com- 

 pound of two Greek words, signifying mamillary teeth, referring 

 to the principal character of the mastodon as distinct from its 

 elephantine contemporary. The teeth are covered with a thick 

 and brilliant enamel, and with sharp points, which caused the 

 animal for a long time to be regarded as carnivorous. The re- 

 ^ mains of seven species have been discovered, three in Europe, 



Tooth of the Mastodon. two in South America, one in India, and one in North America. 



