EVOLUTION OF ELEPHANTS 347 



ice blocks has been proven to extend even to the blood of 

 these extinct mammals. In preparing the fine specimen 

 recently acquired by the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle of 

 Paris, some brownish drops were found in one of the 

 veins, and analysis revealed the fact that they were blood 

 drops, which still retained their liquid state, although 

 the pulsating heart had ceased to beat perhaps 40,000 

 years ago.* As we have already noted clotted blood 

 was also found in the chest of the great mammoth from 

 Beresovka, recently set up in the Petrograd Museum of 

 Natural History. 



A law at present in force in Russia provides that all mam- 

 moth tusks taken from the Siberian region shall be sent to 

 the Academy of Sciences in Petrograd, but the provi- 

 sions of this law are evaded or at least not fulfilled by the 

 natives, Ostiaks, and others, who are probably quite ignorant 

 of its existence. Such tusks as are still found — the quan- 

 tity is constantly diminishing — show a maximum diameter 

 of about 20 cm. (nearly 8 in.), a maximum length of 2 

 metres, a little over 6| ft., and a maximum weight of 150 

 kilograms, or about 330 pounds. The natives are ready 

 to exchange any they may find for powder or flour, but more 

 especially for liquor. The finding of any extraordinary 

 specimen is, however, generally reported to the Academy. 

 The price of this mammoth ivory as used in the arts is from 

 50 kopecks to 2 rubles for a Russian pound (420 grams). 

 Billiard balls are produced to a certain extent in Moscow 

 and St. Petersburg, and ateliers in Tobolsk and Chelia- 

 binsk furnish a considerable variety of objects, such as cru- 

 cifixes, small statues, groups of Ostiaks, figures of reindeer, 

 bears, and other animals. Where the tusk is of suflScient 

 size it not infrequently happens that the artist decorates 

 it with such figures carved in relief. While this work may 



*Communication of Prof. G. On^sime Clerc of Ekaterinburg, Russia. 



