THE ELEPHANT. 85 



appearsito be the firft who has put the matter 

 beyond all doubt, by accurate menfurations, 



F 3 exact 



The Coffacks of Jakutzk were extremely happy to find, un- 

 der the pretext of going in quell: of the bones of the mammouth, 

 an opportunity of making fuch agreeable voyages. They were 

 furniihed with five or fix poll horfes, when one would have been 

 iufficient, and they could employ the reft in carrying various 

 articles of merchandize. Such an advantage was a great en- 

 couragement to adventiner.5 A Coifack of Jakutzk, 



called jfivanfeljiuy petitioned the Chancery to be feat to the 

 thmowies of Alafeifch and Kowymifch, in quell of thefe kind 

 of bones, and of true cryftal. He had already lbjourned in 

 thefe places, had collected many curious objeds, and aclually 

 fent to Jakutzk fome of thefe bones. Nothing feemed more 

 important than this expedition ; and the Coffack was defpatch- 

 ed on the 21ft day of April 1725. 



Nafar-Kolefchow, commiflary of Indigirfk, in the year 172-,, 

 fent to Jakutzk, and from that to Irkutzk, the bones of a fin- 

 gular head, which, according to my information, was two 

 arfchines, bating three werfchok, in length, one arfchine high, 

 and armed with two horns and a tufk of the mammouth. This 

 head arrived at Irkutzk on the 14th day of Oclober 1723 • 

 and I found the hiftory of it in the chancery of that town. I 

 was alfo allured, that the fame man afterwards fent a horn of 

 the mammouth. 



Thefe Facts, collected from differeut fburces, regard, in ae~ 

 neral, the fame fpecies of bones, namely, 1. All the bones in. 

 the Imperial cabinet of Petersburg, under the name of M 

 mouth bones^ will he found, upon examinatioTi, to have a perfett rp- 

 femhlance to ihofe of the elefnwt. 2. From what has been above 

 related, it appears, that there have been found in the earth, 

 heads of an animal totally different from an elephant, and 

 .which, particularly in the figure of the horns, refembled the 

 head of an ox more than that of an elephant. Belldes, this 

 animal could not be fo large as an elephant; and I have fcen 

 a head of it at Jakutzk, which had been fent from Anadir- 

 fkoi-Oftrog, and was, according to my information, perfectly 

 fimilar to that found by Po'ftn-iagin. I nn T.if had one frorh 



riafhiko?. 



