IVORY ISLANDS IN THE ARCTIC OCEAN. 49 
Jeannette’s crew did not meet any searchers for fossil ivory in 
the New Siberian [slands, they found the tusks of mammoths 
in all the islands on which they landed. 
Dr. Henry Lansdell, who has given such a valuable account 
of Southern and Central Siberia, refers to the ivory trade from 
the New Siberian Islands.* He describes the trade as it 
existed in 1882, and refers to the vast quantity of fossil ivory 
brought to Yakutsk from the islands in the Arctic Ocean. 
That there is even now no falling off in the trade in elephants’ 
tusks is shown by the fact that in 1898, some 80,000 lbs. of 
fossil ivory were offered for sale at the fair at Yakutsk. This 
is greatly in excess of the average annual sale of fossil ivory 
at Yakutsk, which, according to M. Stadling, is 40,000 lbs. 
A valuable addition to our knowledge of the Mammoth 
Islands in the Arctic Ocean geologically, was made by Baron 
Toll and Professor Bunge, who thoroughly examined both the 
Liakoff and the New Siberian Islands. In 1886, Dr. Bunge 
visited Kotelnoi, but the bad weather and want of fuel 
prevented his expedition from being a success Dr. Bunge then 
proceeded to Liakoff’s Island (ie., his first island) which he 
thoroughly explored. Granite peaks rose here and there on the 
island, but its greater portion was composed of alluvial soil. 
The sand and oravel was found to rest on blocks of ice, and the 
alluvial beds were full of the bones of mammoths, rhinoceroses, 
and musk oxen. Along with these animals there were also 
found the bones of oxen, horses, and deer; in fact, the island 
was full of the bones of animals, which must formerly have 
lived in this desolate island in enormous numbers. When we 
reflect that for a hundred years the ivory hunters Lave been 
every year taking away tusks and teeth from this island, and 
yet the supply continues, we may form some idea of the 
countless and incalculable masses of animal remains which it 
must have contained when discovered. Baron Toll in the same 
year visited both the islands of Fadeyeffskoi and New Siberia. 
He examined the “Wood Hills” on New Siberia, and found 
them to consist of carbonised trunks of trees, with impressions 
of leaves and fruits, and he considered that they resembled the 
fossil fora of the Tertiary Period of Greenland and Spitzbergen. 
Baron Toll made a complete circuit of the island of Kotelnoi in 
forty days. From the northern point of this island he was 
fortunate enough to obtain a view of the island which Sannikoff 
declared that he saw in 1806, and the existence of which had, 
* Through Siberia, pp. 288-293. 
