A fossil specimen was discovered in 1799, in Asiatic Russia; being the only instance in which any fossil animal has been discovered in the condition in which it died, in a state of absolute integrity. From its remote situation, and other circumstances, it was unfortunately in a great measure destroyed before it could be examined by a naturalist. This discovery was accidentally made by a Tongous, and in a situation similar to that mentioned by Kotzebue. By the fracture and fall of a portion of an iceberg near the mouth of a river, a part of the animal became exposed ; and during the summer of the two fol lowing years, the ice had so far dissolved, that a great part of the body came into view.
In 1803, five years after the first discovery, the Tartar hunter and fisherman who had continued to watch it, still unattainable from its elevated position in the ice cliff, found that the ice was fast dissolving round it, so that at length it fell down, and lodged in an accessible part of the shore. The tusks were then taken away and sold ; and the circumstance thus exciting attention, a drawing was made, After that, it was examined by Mr. Adams; but as this was more than two years afterwards, or in 1806, the dogs of the natives, and the other animals of the country, had nearly devoured all the flesh ; and one of the lore legs had also been carried off, apparently by the white bears. The rest of the skeleton remained, and many parts were also kept in their places by the ligaments and parts of the skin. The head was so entire, that the skin still covered
it, although dried and shrunk. Even the eyes were to lerably preserved, as was one of the ears, which was found to be covered with a tuft of strong bristles. The under lip had been eaten off, together with part of the upper one.
There was a long mane remaining on the neck of this animal, which was a male, and the skin was very thick and heavy. The hair, which had been left by the animals that had eaten the carcase, is particularly interesting, because it determines a geological fact which we have elsewhere noticed, respecting the non-transportation of these Siberian elephants, could there any longer be a doubt about that. The stiff black bristles were a foot or more in length ; and these probably belonged to the mane, the tail, and the ears. Other bristles were much shorter, and of a reddish brown colour ; and besides these, there was a quantity of coarse wool of the same hue. This, it is evident, is the wool which lies next the skin in all the inhabitants of cold climates ; and it serves to prove, most satisfactorily, that the Siberian, and probably all the nor thern fossil elephants, were residents of the countries in which they are now found. The elephants of our day, belonging to hot climates, are nearly naked.