The mammoth truly belongs to the geological history of the world; it died out at the close of the period represented by the pleistocene beds. It is the only fossil animal that has been preserved in a perfect condition for the examination of man. In all other remains we have to deal with the hard portions only—the bones, teeth, scales, etc., and frequently only with fragmentary portions, requiring the skill of a Cuvier or an Owen to make from them an approximation to the perfect animal. But the mammoth has been preserved so that its flesh has been eaten by dogs, bears, and wolves. In 1799, a Tungusian, named Schumachoff, while searching along the shores of lake Oncoul for mammoth tusks, observed among the blocks of ice a shapeless mass, but did not at the time discover what it was. The heat of summers gradually melted the ice around it, and, in 1803, the mammoth fell on a bank of sand. In Mar. of the following year, the hunter visited it, cut off, and carried away the tusks, which he sold for fifty rubles. In 1806, Mr. Adams visited the locality, and examined the animal, which still remained on the sand-bank where it had fallen, but in a greatly mutilated condition. The Jakutski of the neighborhood had cut off the flesh to feed their dogs, and the wild beasts had almost entirely cleared the bones. The skeleton was, however, entire, except ing one of the forelegs, and some of the bones of the tail. Many of the bones were still held together by the ligaments and by parts of the skin. The head was covered with dry skin; one of the ears was well preserved; it was furnished with a tuft of hairs. Three fourths of the whole skin were procured, which was so heavy that ten persons found great difficulty in transporting it to the shore, a distance of 150 ft.; it was of a dark-gray color, and was covered with a reddish wool, and long black hairs or bristles. The wool was short, and curled in locks; the bristles were of different lengths, varying from 1 to 18 inches. Some of this covering still remained attached to the skin, but the great mass was entirely separated from it. Mr. Adams collected 36 lbs., although much
of it had been destroyed from the dampness of the place where it had lain so long. The animal was a male, and had a long mane on the neck. The entire carcass was removed to St. Petersburg, where it is now preserved. The tusks were repurchased, and added to the animal. It measures from the fore part of the skull to the end of the muti lated tail 16 ft. 4 in.; the height to the top of the dorsal spines is 9 ft. 4 in.; the length of the tusks along the curve is 9 ft. 6 inches. Portions of the hairy coveting have been brought to this country, and may be seen in the British museum.
Taking the teeth as exhibiting clearly a marked difference in the recent species, the mammoth is easily separated from both by its broader grinders, which have narrower, and more numerous, and close-set plates, and ridges. The existence of the E. and other genera, whose representatives are now found only in the warmer regions of the earth, in the n. of Europe and Asia, led to the belief, that at the recent period in the world's his tory when they were its living inhabitants, a tropical temperature existed in the temper ate zone, and stretched further n. towards the pole; but the discovery of this perfect animal showed that these huge elephants were adapted by their clothing to endure a cold climate, and by the structure of their teeth were able to employ as food the branches and foliage of the northern pines, birches, willows, etc. There are few generalizations more plausible at first sight than to predicate of an unknown species of a genus what is ascertained regarding the known members of the same genus. It required a striking case, such as that supplied by the discovery of the mammoth, to show clearly the fallacy of deductions which were almost universally received by scientific men not many years ago, which still occasionally mislead, and which may even now be met with in some popular hand-books of science.