

184 



CLIMATE OF THE MAMMOTH 



[Ch. X. 



a 



wood), were still recognisable. It was also remarkable on 

 close investigation of the head, that the blood-vessels disco- 

 vered in the interior of the mass appeared filled, even to the 

 capillary vessels, with a brown mass (coagulated blood), which 

 in many places still showed the red colour of blood.' * 



Thirty years after the discovery of the rhinoceros 

 Pallas, the entire carcass of a mammoth was obtained in 

 1803, by Mr. Adams, much farther to the north. It fell from 

 a mass of ice, in which it had been encased, on the banks of 

 the Lena, in lat. 70° ; and so perfectly had the soft parts of 

 the carcass been preserved, that the flesh, as it lay, was 

 devoured by wolves and bears. This skeleton is still in the 

 museum of St. Petersburg, the head retaining its integument 

 and many of the ligaments entire. The skin of the animal 

 was covered, first, with black bristles, thicker than horse- 

 hair, from twelve to sixteen inches in length ; secondly, with 

 hair of a reddish brown colour, about four inches long 1 : and 

 thirdly, with wool of the same colour as the hair, about an 



Of the fur, upwards of thirty pounds' weight 

 were gathered from the wet sandbank. The individual was 

 nine feet high and sixteen feet long, without reckoning the 

 large curved tusks : a size rarely surpassed by the largest 



inch in length. 



t 



mammoth 



naked, like the living Indian and African elephants, was 

 enveloped in a thick shaggy covering of fur, probably as 



musk 



The 



may 



to withstand the vicissitudes of a northern climate ; and it is 



the moment when the carcasses, both of 



om 



the rhinoceros and elephant, above described, were buried 

 in Siberia, in latitudes 64° and 70° E"., the soil must have 

 remained frozen, and the atmosphere as cold as at this day. 



Mr. Middendo 



September 



communi 



* Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. Lond., vol. 

 iv. p. 10, Memoirs. 



t Journal du Nord, St, Petersburg, 

 1807. b 



| Fleming, Ed. New Phil. Journ., No. 

 xii. p. 285, 1829. 



§ Ossements fossils, 4th cd., 1836. 





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