The Discovery of the Mammoth.

Auckland Star, Volume XVII, Issue 202, 28 August 1886, Page 3

The Discovery of the Mammoth.

At tho close.of the last century, a poor fisherman named Shumarhoff lived near tho mouth of the Lena River, which flows through the cold Siborian country and is lost in tho icy waters of the Arctic Sea In tho summer he plied his vocation on the sea coast, and during the long winter lived far up the river, where it was perhaps a little warmer. It is safe to say that Shumarhoff would never have made a great noise in the world—in fact, would never havo been heard of—had it not boen for a wonderful discovery he made while coming down the liver ono spring. Tho river banks of this cold country are quite peculiar. Those on the western tide aro generally low and marshy, while those on the eastern are often from sixty to one hundred feet in height. In the extreme north, this high elevation is cut into numerous pyramidalshaped mound?, which, viewed from the sea orrirer, look exactly as if they had been built by man. In thesummer, these strange formations are free from snow, and to a depth of 10ft are soft; but below this they are continually frozen, and have been for untold ages. They are formed of layers of earth and icn—sometimes a clear stratum of the latter many feet in thickness. It was beforesuch a mound that our fisherman stooped, dumb with astonishment, one spring morning, so many years ago. About 30ft above him, half way up the face of tho mound, appeared the section of a great icelaj er, from which tbe water was flowing in numberless streams ; while protruding from it, and partly hanging over, was an animal of such hugo proportions that the simple fisherman could hardly believe his eyes. Two gigantic horns or tusks were visible, and a groat woolly body was faintly outlined in the blue, icy mass. In the fall, he told the story to his comrades up the river, and in the ensuing Bpring, with a party of his fellow fishermen, he again vißited the Bpot. A year had worked wonders. The great mass had thawed out sufficeutly to show its nature, and on closer inspection proved to boa well-preserved specimen of one of those gigantic extinct hairy elephants that roamed over the northern parts of Europe and America in the oarlior ages of the world. The body was still too firmly attached and frozen to permit of removal. For four succeesive years the fishermen visited it, until finally, in March, ISOI, five years after its original discovery, it broke away from its icy bed and came thundering down upon the sands below. The discoverers first detached the tusks, that were 9ft 6in in length, aud together weighed 3601b. The hide, covered with wool and hair, was more than twenty men could lift. Part of this, with the tusks, were taken to Jakutsk and sold for fifty rubles, while the rest of the animal was left where it fell, and cut up at various times by the Jakoutes, who fed their dogs with its flesh. A strange feast this, truly— meat that had been frozen solid in the icehouse of Nature perhaps fifty thousand years. (According to Sir William Logan, from five hundred thousand to one million years ago.] more or less ; but so well was it preserved that, when the brain was afterwards compared with that of a recently killed animal, no difference in the tissues could be! detected.

Two years after the animal had fallen from the cliff, the news reached St, Petersburg, and the Museum of Natural History sent a scientist to secure the specimen and purchase it for tho Emperor. He found the mammoth where it originally fell, but much torn by animals, especially by, the white bears and foxes. The massive skeleton, however, was entire, with the exception of one fore leg, while all the other bones were still held togther by the ligaments and flesh, as if the animal had been dead only a few weeks. The neck was still covered by a long mane of reddish wool, and over hirty pounds more of tho Eame coloured wool or hair were collected by the scientist from the adjaceet sand, into which it had been trodden by bears and other animals of prey. In this" condition the mammoth, with the tusks, which, were repurchased in Jakutsk, was taken to St. Petersburg, and there mounted. Its length is 26ft,inoluding the curve of tbo tusks ; it standß 16ft high, and when alive it probably weighed more than twice as much as the largest living elephant. And, as Borne tusks have been found over 15ft in length, wo may reasonably conclude that Shumarhoff'e mammoth is only an average sptcimtn, and that many of its companions were considerably larger. Imagine the spectacle of a largo herd of these mighty creatures lushing along over the frozen ground, the reverberation of their tread sounding like thunder. When enraged, their wild, headlong course must have been one of terrible devastation. Large trees were but twigs to these giants of the north, and everything must have given way before them. Tusks of this animal had been discovered previous to ShumarhofFs find, and have been found since in such great quantities that vessels go out for the sole purpose of collecting them. Escholt Bay, near Behring Strait, is a famous place for them, and numbers have also been found in England. It is stated that the fishermen of Happisburgh have dredged up over 2,000 mammoth teeth during the past 12 years—a fact showing that a once favourite resort, or perhaps burying ground,of theßO great creatures^ is now covered by the ocean. In the cliffs of Northern Alaska remains of the mammoth are often seen, and the New Siberian Islands recently visited by the Arctic explorer, Baron '.Nordensjold, are liberally supplied with these, as well as remains of other and equally interesting extinct aud fossil animals. The mammoth was so called from a curious belief among the Siberians that this enormous animal lived in caverns under the ground, much after the fashion of the mole. Many of the tusks and bones were found buried in the frozen earth, and it was the natural conclusion that the animal lived there when alive. They believed it could not bear the light of day, and ;so dug out with its tuske great tunnels in the earth.