4 Quadrupeds, 



These extraordinary accounts might be considered doubtful, had 

 they not been abundantly confirmed by others, of which the authen- 

 ticity is fully established. The first of these is the disinterment of a 

 rhinoceros in 1771, near Vilhoui, having its flesh, skin and hair as in 

 a living state. A circumstantial account of this event is recorded by 

 Pallas ; and the head and legs of the animal are still preserved at St. 

 Petersburgh. The second was the discovery of a mammoth on the 

 banks of the Alaseia, a river which flows into the Frozen Ocean be- 

 yond the Indigirska. The account is given in the voyage of Saryt- 

 schew. It had been dislodged by a flood, and the carcass was almost 

 entire, and was covered with a skin, to which, in some places, long 

 hair was still attached. The third was that of the mammoth brought 

 to St. Petersburgh by Mr. Adams, and found in a state of preservation 

 perfectly marvellous. The fact was first recorded in October, 1807, 

 in the 30th number of the ' Journal du Nord,' published at St. Peters- 

 burgh, which, after being copied into various periodicals, was repub- 

 lished, nearly as follows, in the fifth volume of the Memoirs of the 

 Academy of St. Petersburgh. 



In 1799 a Tungusian fisherman observed, in a bank on the shore of 

 the Frozen Ocean, at the mouth of the river Lena, a shapeless mass, 

 almost enveloped in ice, and he was quite rmable to make out what it 

 could be. The year following, a larger portion of this mass became 

 visible, but the fisherman was still unable to ascertain its nature. — 

 Towards the end of the following summer one of the tusks and an en- 

 tire side of the animal were exposed. It was not, however, until the 

 fifth year from its discovery, when the ice having melted sooner than 

 usual, that the enormous animal became entirely detached from the 

 bank or cliff in which it was first observed, and came thundering 

 down on to a sand-bank below. In the month of March, 1804, the 

 fisherman extracted the tusks, which were 9 feet 6 inches long, and 

 together weighed 360 lbs., and sold them at Jakutsk for fifty rubles. 

 Two years afterwards Mr. Adams visited the animal, and found it much 

 mutilated. The Jakoutes residing in the neighbourhood had cut 

 away the flesh to feed their dogs; wild beasts, especially white bears, 

 foxes, &c., had also eaten a great quantity of it. Nevertheless, the 

 skeleton was entire, with the exception of a fore leg ; the other bones 

 being still held together by ligaments and portions of skin. The 

 head was covered with dried skin ; one of the ears was entire, and 

 furnished with a tuft of hairs : the pupil of the eye was still to be dis- 

 tinguished ; the brain was in the skull, but somewhat dried ; the low- 

 er lip had been gnawed by animals, the upper one was entirely gone, 



