230 
Journey to the Frozen Sea, and 
cient precision liow much the mountains of ice lose annu 
ally of their primitive height. 
I made two additional excursions for the purpose of 
acquiring some more precise notions upon the nature of 
this peninsula, and my discoveries in zoology and bota- 
ny perfectly answered my expectations. I found a great 
quantity of amber upon the shores ; but in no piece what- 
ever could 1 discover the least trace of any marine pro- 
duction. I should, perhaps, attribute this to the proxi- 
mity of the river, and perhaps also to the depth of the 
sea, or abruptness of the shore. I had occasion to exa- 
mine more closely the effects of the flux and reflux : this 
has escaped M. Sauer, who saw nothing of it at the mouth 
of the Colima. 
Our Cossacs not having arrived in time with the boat, 
I was obliged to return to the continent with my rein- 
deer, without waiting for them. The vessel, in the mean 
time, had cast anchor in the bay of Borchaya, three hun- 
dred wersts from the isthmus where I was. We arrived 
without any accident, after a journey of eight days. A 
week afterwards I had the satisfaction to see the mam- 
moth arrive. Our first care was to separate, by boiling, 
the nerves and flesh from the bones; the skeleton was 
then packed, and placed at the bottom of the hold. When 
we arrived at Jakoutsk, I had the good fortune to pur- 
chase the tusks of the mammoth ; and thence I despatched 
the whole for St. Petersburgh. 
A question of some magnitude remains to be dissolv- 
ed:— Are the mammoth and elephant animals of the same 
species, as asserted by Buffon, Pallas, Isbrand Ides, 
Grnelin, and, above all, Baubenton ? or should we, in 
preference, rely upon the opinion of M. Cuvier, who as- 
serts that the mammoth occupies the second place among 
the extinct species of animals? As I do not intend, in 
this place, to make an exact comparison of the skeletons 
