It has been demonstrated by Cuvier, that this animal was of a different
species from the mastodon, or American mammoth. Its bones have been
found in the alluvial soil near London, Northampton, Gloucester,
Harwich, Norwich, in Salisbury plain, and in other places in England;
they also occur in the north of Ireland; and in Sweden, Iceland, Russia,
Poland, Germany, France, Holland, and Hungary, the bones and teeth have
been met with in abundance. Its teeth have also been found in North and
South America, and abundantly in Asiatic Russia. Pallas says, that from
the Don to the Tchutskoiness, there is scarcely a river that does not
afford the remains of the mammoth, and that they are frequently imbedded
in _alluvial soil, containing marine productions_. The skeletons, a view
of one of which is given in the cut below, are seldom complete; but the
following interesting narrative will show that, in one instance, the
animal has been found in an entire state.
[Illustration: SKELETON OF THE SIBERIAN MAMMOTH.]
In the year 1799, a Tungusian fisherman observed a strange shapeless
mass projecting from an ice-bank, near the mouth of a river in the north
of Siberia, the nature of which he did not understand, and which was so
high in the bank as to be beyond his reach. The next year he observed
the same object, which was then rather more disengaged from among the
ice, but was still unable to conceive what it was. Toward the end of the
following summer, 1801, he could distinctly see that it was the frozen
carcass of a huge animal, the entire flank of which, and one of its
tusks, had become disengaged from the ice. In consequence of the ice
beginning to melt earlier, and to a greater degree than usual, in 1803,
the fifth year of this discovery, the enormous carcass became entirely
disengaged, and fell down from the ice-crag on a sand-bank forming part
of the coast of the Arctic ocean. In the month of March of that year,
the Tungusian carried away the two tusks, which he sold for fifty
rubles, about thirty-eight dollars.
Two years afterward this animal still remained on the sand-bank, where
it had fallen from the ice; but its body was then greatly mutilated. The
peasants had taken away considerable quantities of its flesh to feed
their dogs; and the wild animals, particularly the white bears, had also
feasted on the carcass; yet the skeleton remained quite entire, except
that one of the fore legs was gone. The entire spine, the pelvis, one
shoulder-blade, and three legs, were still held together by their
ligaments, and by some remains of the skin; and the other shoulder-blade
was found at a short distance. The head remained, covered by the dried
skin, and the pupil of the eyes was still distinguishable. The brain
also remained within the skull, but a good deal shrunk and dried up; and
one of the ears was in excellent preservation, still retaining a tuft of
strong bristly hair. The upper lip was a good deal eaten away, and the
under lip was entirely gone, so that the teeth were distinctly seen. The
animal was a male, and had a long mane on its neck.
The skin was extremely thick and heavy, and as much of it remained as
required the exertions of ten men to carry away, which they did with
considerable difficulty. More than thirty pounds of the hair and
bristles of this animal were gathered from the wet sand-bank, having
been trampled into the sand by the white bears, while devouring the
carcass. The hair was of three distinct kinds: one consisting of stiff
black bristles, a foot or more in length; another of thinner bristles,
or coarse flexible hair, of a reddish-brown color; and the third of
coarse reddish-brown wool, which grew among the roots of the hair. These
afford an undeniable proof that this animal had belonged to a race of
elephants inhabiting a cold region, with which we are unacquainted, and
by no means fitted to dwell in the torrid zone. It is also evident that
this enormous animal must have been frozen up by the ice at the moment
of its death.