22^ Journey to the Frozen Sea , and 
knows no other society. If? after several years absence, 
two friends meet by chance, they then mutually commu- 
nicate their adventures, the various success of their hunt- 
ing, and the quantity of peltry they have acquired. Af- 
ter having spent some days together, and consumed the 
little provisions they have, they separate cheerfully, 
charge each other with compliments for their respective 
friends, and leave it to chance to bring them together 
again. Such is the way of life of these innocent chil- 
dren of Nature. The Toungouses who inhabit the coast 
differ from the rest, in having more regularly built 
houses, and in assembling at certain seasons for fishing 
and hunting. In winter they inhabit cabins, built close 
to each other, so as to form small villages. 
“It is to one of these annual excursions of the Toun- 
gouses that we are indebted for the discovery of the mam- 
moth. Towards the end of August, when the fishing in 
the Lena is over, Schoumachoff is in the habit of going 
along with his brothers to the peninsula of Tumut, where 
they employ themselves in hunting, and where the fresh 
fish of the sea furnish them with wholesome and agree- 
able nourishment. 
“ In 1799, he had caused to be built for his women, 
some cabins upon the shores of the lake Onroul; and he 
himself coasted along the sea shore for the purpose of 
searching for some mammoth horns. One day he per- 
ceived in the midst of a rock of ice an unformed block, 
which did not at all resemble the floating pieces of wood 
usually found there. In order to examine it more close- 
ly, he clambered up the rock and examined this new ob- 
ject all around ; but he could not ascertain what it was. 
The year following he discovered in the same spot, the 
carcase of a sea-cow (Trichecus Fosmarus). He per- 
ceived at the same time that the mass he had formerly 
seen was freer from the ice, and by the side of it he re 
