2o8 
EXTINCT MONSTERS. 
half feet in thickness, and a tail, naked up to the end, which was 
covered with thick tufty hair. The animal was fat and well- 
grown ; death had overtaken him in the fulness of his powers. 
His parchment-like, large, naked ears, lay fearfully turned over 
the head ; about the shoulders and the back he had stiff hair, 
about a foot in length, like a mane. The long outer hair was 
deep brown and coarsely rooted. The top of the head looked 
so wild, and so penetrated with pich ^ that it resembled the rind 
of an old oak tree. On the sides it was cleaner, and under the 
outer hair there appeared everywhere a wool, very soft, warm 
and thick, and of a fallow-brown colour. The giant was well 
protected against the cold. The whole appearance of the animal 
was fearfully strange and wild. It had not the shape of our 
present elephants. As compared with our Indian elephants, its 
head was rough, the brain-case low and narrow, but the trunk 
and mmuth were much larger. The teeth were very powerful. 
Our elephant is an awkward animal, but compared with this 
Mammoth it is as an Arabian steed to a coarse, ugly dray-horse. 
I could not divest myself of a feeling of fear as I approached the 
head ; the broken, widely-open eyes, gave the animal an appear- 
ance of life, as though it might move in a moment and destroy us 
with a roar. . . . The bad smell of the body warned us that it 
was time to save of it what we could, and the swelling flood, too, 
bid us hasten. First of all we cut off the tusks, and sent them 
to the cutter. Then the people tried to hew off the head, but 
notwithstanding their good will, this work was slow. As the belly 
of the animal was cut open the intestines rolled out, and then the 
smell was so dreadful that I could not overcome my nauseous- 
ness, and was obliged to turn away. But I had the stomach 
separated, and brought on one side. It was well filled, and the 
contents instructive and well preserved. The principal were 
young shoots of the fir and pine ; a quantity of young fir-cones, 
also in a chewed state, were mixed with the mass. ... As we were 
^ “ Und mit Pech so durchgedrungen.” 
