H. H. Howorth—The Mammoth in Siberia. 413 
earry their families usually along with them” (Avril’s Travels, i. 
175—177). This notice is surely very curious, apart from its mere 
legends, in that it shows that the Bear Islands off the mouth of the 
Lena, still so famous for their deposits of Mammoth ‘ivory, were 
known and resorted to for this very product in the seventeenth 
century. 
Isbrand Ides, who travelled to China in 1692—95, tells us that 
among the Yakuts, Tunguses, and Ostiaks, it was reported that 
the Mammoth continually, or at least, by reason of the very hard 
frosts, mostly live under ground, where they go backwards and 
forwards, to confirm which, he says, they tell us that when one of 
these beasts is on the march and after he is past, the ground sinks in 
and makes a deep pit. They further believe, he adds, that if this 
animal comes near the surface of the frozen earth so as to smell or 
discern the air he immediately dies, whence the reason that several 
of them are found dead on the high banks of the river, where they 
unawares came out of the ground (Isbrand Ides’ Travels, p. 26). 
Strahlenberg, who wrote a few years later than Isbrand Ides, has 
a long article on Mammoths’ bones, which he calls Mamatowa-Kost. 
He describes them as found at the mouths of the Obi, Yenissei, Lena, 
and other rivers. He says they generally could not be distinguished 
from ivory, except by being a little more yellow, caused by exposure 
to the air, ‘‘ but sometimes they are of a brown colour like cocoa-nut 
shells, sometimes of a blackish blue, from the same cause. If the 
latter,” he says, ‘are sawed into thin leaves and polished, one may 
observe upon them all sorts of figures of landscapes, trees, men, and 
beasts, which likewise proceeds from the decay of these teeth, caused 
by the air.... A great many of these teeth, which are white, 
are carried for sale to China.” In discussing the kind of animal to 
which they belonged, he says—“ That they were - amphibious 
creatures, which is currently believed by the Siberian populace, I 
have always looked upon it to be a fable, nor have I ever met with 
two accounts of that matter which were of a piece” (op. cit. 402— 
404), 
Bell, whose travels through Russia were published in 1788, says, 
that on the banks of the Obi, near Surgut, were found great 
quantities of fossil ivory. Some of it, he says, is also found on the 
banks of the Volga, and adds that the vulgar really imagine it is still 
living in the marshes underground, and that the Tartars tell many 
fables of its having been seen alive. The Commandant of Surgut 
had his entry ornamented with several very large tusks, of which he 
gave Bell one. Bell adds, he had been told by the Tartars in the 
Baraka that they had seen this creature at dawn of day near lakes 
and rivers, but on discovering them it always tumbled into the water 
and never appeared in the daytime. They described it as of the size 
of an elephant, with a monstrous large head and horns, with which 
he made his way in marshy places and under ground, where he 
concealed himself until night. 
The notion has survived down to our own day. A meeting of the 
American Association for the Promotion of Science, a few days ago, 
7 
