2^8 Journey to the Frozen Sea, and 
for the purpose of collecting all the bristles which the 
white bears might have trodden into the wet ground on 
devouring the flesh. This operation was attended with 
difficulty, as we wanted the necessary instruments for 
digging the ground : I succeeded however in procuring 
in this manner more than one pond weight of bristles. 
Tn a few days our labour was ended, and I found my- 
self in possession of a treasure, which amply recom- 
pensed me for the fatigues and dangers of the journey, 
and even for the expenses I had incurred. 
The place where I found the mammoth is about sixty 
paces distant from the shore ; and from the fracture of the 
ice from which it slid is about one hundred paces distant. 
This fracture occupies the middle precisely between the 
two points of the isthmus, and is three wersts long, and 
even in the place where the mammoth was, this rock has 
a perpendicular elevation of thirty or forty toises. Its 
substance is a clear ice, but of a nauseous taste; it in- 
clines towards the sea ; its summit is covered with a bed 
of moss and friable earth half an archine in thickness. 
During the heat of the month of July a part of this crust 
melts, but the other remains frozen. 
Curiosity prompted me to ascend two other hillocks 
equally distant from the sea ; they were of the same com 
position, and also a little covered with moss. At inter- 
vals I saw pieces of w ood of an enormous size, and of 
all the species produced in Siberia; and also mammoth 
horns in great quantities frozen between the fissures of 
the rocks. They appeared to be of an astonishing fresh- 
ness. 
It is as curious as it is difficult to explain how all 
these things are to be found collected here. The inhabi- 
tants of the coast call this kind of wood Adamsohina, and 
distinguish it from the floating wood, which descending 
the great rivers of Siberia falls into the ocean, and is al- 
