FROZEN MAMMOTH IN SIBERIA/' 



Bv O. F. Herz. 



[About the middle of April, 1901, the Imperial Academy of Sciences 

 of St, Petersburg was informed b}" V. N. Skripitsin, governor of 

 Yakutsk, of the discovery of a mammoth in an almost perfect state of 

 preservation frozen in the cliff along the river Berezovka, the right 

 tributary of the river Kol3aiia, about 200 miles northeast of Sredne- 

 Kolymsk (about 800 miles westward of Bering Strait and some 60 

 miles within the Arctic Circle). 



Thanks to the courtesy of Finance Minister Witte, 16,300 rubles 

 were assigned for the prompt dispatch of an expedition to examine 

 and secure this valuable tind. 



O. F. Herz, a zoologist of the Imperial Academ}' of Sciences, was 

 appointed chief of the expedition; E. V. Pfizenmeyer, a zoological 

 preparator of the same institution, and D. P. Sevastianoff, a geolog- 

 ical student of the Yuryevck University, his assistants. The expedi- 

 tion started from St. Petersburg on May 3, 1901, and its chief reached 

 the mammoth region on September 9. On August 28 the expedition 

 was joined by Mr. Hoi'n, a police official from Sredne-Kolymsk.] 



August 31- September 6. — Upon reaching Mysova, on the Kolyma 

 River, I was informed that the Cossack Yavlovski had but a few daj'S 

 previously gone to the mammoth region, about 85 miles distant, hav- 

 ing understood that the academy expedition would not reach Sredne- 

 Kolymsk before winter, and that upon his return, in three or four 

 days, I should be able to continue the journey. Yavlovski arrived on 

 September 3, and tliough the tidings he brought were somewhat dis- 

 couraging, there was yet liope for success. He had intended to visit 

 the mammoth region in the spring, but had been hindered by serious 

 illness, from which he only recently recovered. Were it not for this 

 mishap he would have covered the tind with stones and earth, and thus 

 prevented it from injury by rain and beasts of prey. Owing to 



« Extracts translated from report of O. F. Herz, chief of the expedition of the 

 Imperial Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburg, to the river Berezovka for excava- 

 tion of frozen mammoth. Entire report in Russian in Bulletin of the Imperial 

 Academy,- St. Petersburg, April, 1902 (fifth series, vol. xvi. No. 4). All dates are 

 in old style. 



611 



