THE TIME OF THE MAMMOTHS. 155 
gluttons and foxes had picked the bones. The skeleton, almost entirely 
stripped of the flesh, was still entire with the exception of one forefoot. 
The spine from the head to the coccyx, a shoulder blade, the pelvis and 
the remains of the three extremities were still attached by cartilage. sin 
head was covered with a dry skin. One of the ears was very well p 
served, and furnished with a tuft of hair. Allthese parts have Sine 
suffered by transportation for a distance of eleven thousand werst. Still 
the eyes have been preserved, and in the left the ball is still visible. The 
brain remained in the skull, but seemed somewhat dried. The parts the 
least injured are one front and one hind foot; they were covered with 
hair, and had still the soles. According to the assertion of the Chief the 
creature was so fat that the belly hung down to below the knees. The 
neck bore a long mane. The skin, of which I collected Puch three-quarters, 
is of a dark gray color, covered with wool and bla 
The escarpment from which the mammoth had slid seas a height of from 
two hundred to two hundred and rid feet, and is composed of clear, 
pure ice. It slopes towards the sea and its summit is covered witha 
coating of moss and friable earth sam eight inches thick. During the +- 
heat of summer a part of the crust melts, but the rest remains frozen. 
Curiosity caused me to climb two other hills somewhat away from the 
shore. They were composed of ice also, and less covered with moss. 
At various points one saw fragments of wood of great size, and many 
tusks of mammoths imbedded in the ice precipices.” ` 
The peculiarities of the geographical distribution of or- 
ganie life makes us associate certain animals and plants with 
certain features of climate. So that the inference was natu- 
rally made that the remains of elephants and rhinoceroses 
indicated a climate of a tropical character in the region 
where they are found at a time when these extinct species 
were living. That this is entirely fallacious is sufficiently 
proven by the fact that our Lena elephant is fitted to resist 
just such a temperature as now prevails in the regions where 
his remains are found. `The hairy envelop afforded a non- 
conductor. such as does not exist on the skin of any living 
animal outside of the Arctic circle. In place of the imper- 
fect hairy covering of hairy pachyderms, or the bare skin of 
his living congeners, this elephant was provided with three 
distinet suits of hair and wool, the longest bristle-like hairs 
having various lengths up to a foot and a half, and serving the 
ruder purposes of defence; the next and shorter coat was a 
close set, tolerably fine hair, three or four inches long ; within 
