THE MAMMOTH. 
20T 
that all we heard said on this subject arises from bare conjecture 
only.” 
But making all allowance for the gross absurdities of these 
accounts, it is clear that they are based on descriptions — probably 
by the Tungusian fishermen — of carcases that have been washed 
out of the frozen soil by rivers in flood time. Now that we 
are in possession of trustworthy accounts, we can understand 
how these strange tales arose among an ignorant and superstitious 
people, such as the fishermen of these inhospitable shores. 
We will now put before the reader the true accounts given by 
Adams ^ and Benkendorf 
In 1799 a Tungusian, named Schumachoff, who generally 
went to hunt and fish at the peninsula of Tamut after the 
fishing season of the Lena was over, had constructed for his 
wife some cabins on the banks of the lake Oncoul, and had 
embarked to seek along the coasts for Mammoth tusks. One 
day he saw among the blocks of ice a shapeless mass, but 
did not then discover what it was. In 1800 he perceived 
that this object was more disengaged from the ice, and that 
it had two projecting parts ; and towards the end of the 
summer of 1801 the entire side of the animal and one of his 
tusks were quite free from ice. In 1803 the enormous mass 
fell by its own weight on a bank of sand. It was a frozen 
Mammoth ! In 1804 Schumachoff came to his Mammoth, and 
having cut off the tusks, exchanged them with a merchant for 
goods. Two years afterwards Mr. Adams, the narrator of the 
story, traversed these distant and desert regions, and found the 
Mammoth still in the same place, but sadly mutilated. The 
people of the neighbourhood had cut off the flesh, and fed their 
dogs with it during the scarcity. Wild beasts, such as white 
bears, wolves, and foxes, also had fed on it, and the traces of 
their footsteps were seen around. The skeleton was complete 
* Abridged from Memoirs of the Imperial Academy of Sctcnces of Si. 
Petersburg^ vol. v. London, 1819. 
