FINDING THE MAMMOTH.

Tuapeka Times, Volume II, Issue 103, 29 January 1870, Page 6

FINDING THE MAMMOTH.

In the year 1799, a chief of a native tribe was searching for ivory along the banks of the Lena, when, to his great horror and fright, he saw a huge block of ice, and in it what he considered a beast of evil omen. He became ill from terror ; but on his recovery, remembering that the beast had tusks which were like those he was searching for, he again visited the spot. There stood, all encased in transparent ice, a creature like an elephant in shape, 9ft. high and 16ffc. long, and -with enormous tusks projecting for Bft. or 10ft., and curving at their tips. The huge brute was hairy ; it has long black bristles all over it, and they were from 1 foot to 16in. long ; it had also long red hair covering the whole body, and short fur. The chief waited and watched for five years. By the end of that time the ice had melted, and the mammoth presented itself in its flesh and hairy hide to the astonished natives. The tusks were cut off and sold, and the neighbouring inhabitants came with their dogs and feasted on the carcase, and the wolves picked the bones. Fortunately a naturalist heard of it, and collected the bones and specimens of the hair, 301bs. weight of which were gathered from the wet sand bank on which the mammoth rested, and the tusks he repurchased. He carried the whole to the nearest capital, St. Petersburg, a distance of 7330 miles, where it became one of the wonders of 'the world, and where it may still be seen in the museum of which it forms a most remarkable feature.— From the " World of Wonders."