The Mammoth and its Epoch. 71 



brought there by its discoverer. From Yenissek lie was to 

 travel, in the winter, to Ochotskoje (70? N. L.), and to await 

 for the disappearance of the snow for an opportunity of seek- 

 ing for the mammoth. Pending his researches, MM. K. 0. 

 Yon Baer and J. F. Brandt have published memoirs on the 

 mammoth, from which the following information is taken : — 



In the seventeenth century, Burgomaster Wilson, of 

 Amsterdam, took great pains to collect information from 

 Siberia, and he pointed out many localities in which mammoth 

 tusks had been found, and added that certain animals had been 

 seen, which were brown-coloured, and diffused a great 

 stench. 



In 1692, Ysbrandt Ides, sent overland as ambassador from 

 Pekin to Peter the Great, reported that a man who collected 

 mammoth ivory every year had found a mammoth's head 

 sticking out of the ground, and had cut it off, and sent it to 

 Turuchansk, together with a foot which he had also seen. 



Messerschmidt found a skeleton which he thought com- 

 plete, on the banks of the Tom. 



In 1739 — 43, Chariton Laptew, who traversed the western 

 -coast of Siberia, reported that whole mammoths, with thick 

 fur, were dug out of the banks of the Tundra. 



In 1771, a rhinoceros, in a state of decomposition, was 

 found on the banks of the Wiljui, and Pallas subsequently sent 

 its head and foot (which had been brought to Irkutsk) to St. 

 Petersburg. 



In 1787, Lieut. Sarytschew heard at Alaseisk, on the river 

 Alaseja, that the carcase of an animal as big as an elephant, 

 covered with skin and with patches of long hair, had been 

 found about 100 versts from that place, and about the same 

 time a mammoth with skin and hair was found at the mouth of 

 the Lena. Another mammoth with fur was seen on the shores 

 of the Polar Sea ; but the most celebrated discovery was that 

 of Adams, the botanist, in 1806. This mammoth was near the 

 mouth of the Lena. It had slipped down from a bank of sand, 

 and was much torn by dogs and wild beasts. 



The naturalist, M. Schrenk, in his journey through the 

 country of the Samojedes, collected information concerning- 

 two skeletons found in the great peninsula between the Carienne 

 Sea and the Gulf of Obi. 



The Moscow skeleton, deficient in its posterior extremities, 

 belonged to an animal discovered at Jenisseiin 1839. 



. In 1843, M. de Middendorff found the remains of a mam- 

 moth in lat. 75°, near the Taimyr, fifty versts from the Polar 

 Sea. The soft parts were decomposed, and the bones had lost 

 their hardness. 



Twenty years ago another mammoth was found in the 



