10 GEOLOGICAL MEMOIRS. 
hardly be taken into consideration. It was indeed reported in: 
1845 that the merchant Traphinow in Beresow had sent a mammoth 
skeleton, found at the mouth of the Jenesei, to the Moscow mu- 
seum; but I understand that on this there are only a few ill-pre- 
served remnants of the soft parts; and unfortunately nothing is 
known of the geognostic conditions in which it occurred, no com- 
petent person having seen it in the place where it was discovered. 
The following observations on Adams’s mammoth and the Wilui 
rhinoceros (RA. tichorhinus) may, however, not be without interest, 
as I have paid particular attention to the state of preservation of 
these relics. I regard it as especially important that the head and 
foot of the Wilui rhinoceros, as well as the soft parts of the mam- 
moth, are still covered with an uninjured skin on which hair grows, 
as this part is very soon destroyed and separated from the body by 
putrefaction. This seems a proof that the bodies of the mammoth 
and rhinoceros have not been brought by floods from the far-distant 
south to this northern region. 
The thick covering of hair on both animals also shows that a 
tropical climate was not absolutely essential for their existence. Its 
dense coat of wool especially adapted the mammoth for a cold cli- 
mate; and though the rhinoceros, which wants this defence, may 
appear less qualified for living in the north, yet other circumstances — 
prove that this was also its true abode. I have been so fortunate 
as to extract from the cavities m the molar teeth of the Wilui 
rhinoceros a small quantity of its half-chewed food, among which 
fragments of pine leaves, one half of the seed of a polygonaceous 
plant, and very minute portions of wood with porous cells (that is, 
small fragments of coniferous wood), were still recognizable. My 
colleague M. Meyer has undertaken the further investigation of 
these singular remains. 
It was also remarkable, ou a close investigation of this head, that 
the blood-vessels discovered 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. 
On observing these vessels in the head, so completely filled with 
the remains of blood-globules, I could not repress the idea that the 
animal to which they belonged had met its fate from asphyxia, pro- 
bably during drowning. 
In order to complete the earlier, very imperfect, observations of 
Arganow and Pallas on the geognostic position of the Wilui rhino- 
ceros, it seemed to me of importance to examine the portions of earth 
still adhering to it in some places. I therefore not only had them 
examined by my friend Helmersen, but also made microscopical ob- 
servations on them myself. We found on the rhinoceros remains 
two kinds of earth. By far the most abundant consisted of micro- 
scopic grains of quartz, enveloped in a fine clayey mud with small 
fragments of mica. Its colour, probably from iron, is brownish 
grey, sometimes with a bluish tinge. It feels somewhat greasy, and 
contains fragments of hair and other animal matter. It does not 
effervesce with acids. The animal matter easily takes fire, and 
