86 THE ELEPHANT. 



exaS: comparifons, and reafonings derived from 



the 



Ilainfkoi-Oftrog, which I fent to the Imperial cabinet at Pe- 

 tcrfburgh. In tine, I learned, that, on the bunks of Nifchnaja- 

 Tungiifka, fimilar heads are not only found every where difper- 

 fed, butlikcwife other bones which unqueftionably belong not to 

 the elephant, fuch as moulder bones, o!fa facra, ofTa innominata* 

 hip-bones, and leg bones, which probably belonged to the fame 

 animal to which the above head ought to be attributed, and 

 Which ihould by no means be excluded from the ox kind. I 

 have feen leg and hip-bones of this fpecies, concerning which 

 I have nothing particular to remark, except that they ap- 

 peared to be extremely fhort in proportion to their thicknefs. 

 Tims in Siberia, two kinds of bones are found in the earth, 

 of which none were formerly eftecmed, but thofe which per- 

 fect:])- reiembled the tulles cf the elephant. But, after the Im- 

 perial order, the whole began to be examined ; and, as the 

 fir ft gave rife to the fable of the mammouth, the laft have 

 alfo been indifcriminately ranked under the fame clafs. Nei- 

 ther muil we believe, with Ifbrand-Ides, and the followers of 

 his reveries, that it is only in the mountains which extend from 

 the river Ivet to the North-eaft, and, confequently, likewife 

 in the environs ofMangafca and Jakut/.k, where the elephants 

 bones are to be found : For they appear not only through all 

 Siberia, not excepting its moil fouthern diftricls, as in the fupe- 

 rior cantons of the Irtifch, Toms, and Lena, but are difperfed 

 in different parts of Ruffia, and even in many places of Ger- 

 many, where they are called, with much propriety, by the 

 name of JoJJil Ivory ; for they have a perfect refemblance to e- 

 lephants teeth, except that they are in a corrupted ftate. In 

 temperate climate?, thefe teeth are foftened and converted 

 into foflil ivory ; but, in countries frequently frozen, they are 

 generally found very frefh. From this circumftance, the fable, 

 that thefe and other bones are often found befmeared with 

 blood, might eafily arife. This fable has been gravely related 

 by Ifbrand-Ides, and, after him, by Muller, (Moeurs et ufages 

 des Oftiaques, dans le Recited des Voyages au Nord, p. 382.) who 

 have been copied by others with equal confidence as if there 

 had been no room for doubt : And as one fiction begets an- 

 other, the blood pretended to be found on thefe bones has 



produced 



