ON THE FOSSIL BONES OF THE ELEPHANT. 275 



We have already noticed the skull found on the banks of the Indig- 

 hirska. It was extracted from the sandy side of a hill, not far from the 

 stream called Volockowoi Ruczei *, opposite Stanoi Jarks f . When we 

 have added to those places the banks of the Kolyma and Anadir men- 

 tioned by Pallas \, we shall find that there is not a district in Siberia 

 which does not yield the bones of elephants. But what, doubtless, 

 will appear still more extraordinary, is the fact, that, of all places on 

 the globe, those which furnish the largest supply of the fossil bones of 

 elephants are certain islands of the Frozen Ocean, to the north of 

 Siberia, opposite the shore which separates the mouth of the Lena 

 from that of the Indighirska. That which lies nearest to the continent 

 is thirty-six leagues long. 



" The whole island (says the editor of Billing's Travels), with the ex- 

 ception of three or four little rocky mountains, is composed of a mixture 

 of sand and ice, so that, when the thawing of the ice causes a part of 

 the shore to give way, the bones of the mammont are found in 

 abundance. The whole island, (continues he), according to the state- 

 ment of the engineer, is composed of the bones of this extraordinary 

 animal, of the horns and skulls of buffaloes, or of animals that resemble 

 them, and of some horns of the rhinoceros." This description is no doubt 

 very much exaggerated, but yet it serves to prove the very great 

 abundance of these bones. 



A second island, twelve leagues in length, and lying five leagues 

 farther from the shore than the former, also yields those bones and 

 teeth ; but a third, twenty-five leagues to the north, has not yielded 



an y§- 



The south of Asia has not furnished these fossils in any thing like 

 the quantities yielded by the north. 



The most southern parts of Asia where the fossil bones of elephants 

 have been as yet discovered, are the shores of the sea of Aral and 

 the banks of the Jaxartes, now r called the Sihon. 



Daubenton mentions the petrified fragments of a molar tooth found 

 on the shores of the former|| ; and Pallas tells us, that the Bokarians 

 sometimes bring ivory from the neighbourhood of the latter river ^f . 



It is probable too, that they may be discovered in Asia Minor 

 and Syria, for the ancient writers speak of their having seen the 

 skeletons of supposed giants in those countries. 



There is every reastm to suppose that the skeleton supposed to 

 be that of Geryon or Hyllus found in upper Lydia, and described 

 by Pausanias **, was in reality the skeleton of an elephant, particu- 

 larly as this author further states, that, while engaged in the labours 

 of husbandry, the inhabitants frequently discovered large horns, which 

 may doubtless be interpreted to mean tusks. 



We might also feel inclined to refer to the same origin the 

 body fifteen feet in length, which the same author tells us was 

 found in the bed of the Orontes, near Antioch ft. 



* Messerschmidt. T Pallas' Nov. Com., vol. xiii, p. 471. 



X Pallas' Nov. Com., vol. xiii, p. 471 . § Billing's Travels, vol. i, p. 181. 



H Nat. Hist., vol. xi, No. mxxx. % Nov. Com., vol. xvii, p. 579. 



«* Attic, chap. xxxv. tt Arcad., chap, xxix. 



