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r they do not once return to their habitations. Each family lives isolated anti 
f knows no other society. If during the course of several years two friends meet 
c by chance, they then communicate to each other their adventures, their different 
* successes in hunting, and the number of skins they have obtained. After having 
' passed some days together, and consumed the few provisions they had, they 
' separate chearfully, carrying each others compliments to their acquaintance, 
f and trusting to Providence for another meeting. The Tungusians inhabiting 
r the coast differ from the former in having more regular and fixed habitations, 
f and in collecting together at certain seasons for fishing and hunting. During 
f winter they inhabit cottages built side by side, so that they form villages. 
f It is to one of these annual trips that we owe the discovery of the 
f Mammoth. Towards the end of the month of August, when the fishing season 
‘ in the Lena is over, Schumachof generally goes with his brothers to the peninsula 
f of Tamut, where they employ themselves in hunting, and where the fresh fish of 
‘ the sea offer them a wholesome and agreeable food. In 1799 he had constructed 
c for his w ife some cabins on the banks of the lake Oncoul, and had embarked to 
f seek along the coasts for Mammoth horns. One day he perceived among the 
* blocks of ice a shapeless mass, not at all resembling the large pieces of 
<r floating wood wdiich are commonly found there. To observe it nearer, he 
4 landed, climbed up a rock and examined this new object on all sides, but with- 
e out being able to discover w hat it was. 
f The following year (1800), lie found the carcase of a walrus (Tri- 
c checus Rosmarus .) He perceived at the same time that the mass he had 
* before seen w as more disengaged from the blocks of ice, and had two projecting 
f parts, but w as still unable to make out its nature. Towards the end of the 
following summer (1S01) the entire side of the animal and one of his tusks, were 
quite free from the ice. On his return to the borders of the lake Oncoul, he 
f communicated this extraordinary discovery to his wife and some of his friends; 
‘ but the way in which they considered the matter filled him with grief. The 
old men related on the occasion their having heard their fathers say, that 
* a similar monster had been formerly seen in the same peninsula, and that all the 
f family of the person who discovered it had died soon afterwards. The Mam- 
c moth was, in consequence, unanimously considered as ail augury of future 
e calamity, and the Tungusian chief was so much alarmed that he fell seriously ill; 
