28 MUTUAL RELATIONS OF THE SCIENCES.

midnight darkness upon a body by protecting it from the direct rays of the sun while it is left exposed to the reflected light of the atmosphere, as expect that the most despotic prohibition of moral enquiry should preserve it from the influence of that glorious effulgence of truth which the curiosity and enterprise of man are permitted to pour on every other department of human investigation. That TRUTH on every subject will finally prevail is the dictate of sound philosophy no less than the hope of true benevolence; and I cannot better close this long discourse, than after having conducted my hearers to so exhilarating a conclusion. I leave them at a point whence the glowing prospect of human improvement stretches before the intellectual vision, bounded only by the incapacity of our faculties to traverse its extent.

[This Discourse was first read as long ago as 1823, and has undergone only a few subsequent alterations, such as the introduction of M. Arago's experiment, and a few other matters of minor consideration. Had the author had to compose it during the year which is just expiring (1851), he would probably have illustrated some parts of it by additional facts that have come to light in the interval; but, as the case stood, he thought it better to allow the Discourse to remain (with the exceptions just named) as originally written, since the unfolding of the principle is of more importance than the fulness or even freshness of the illustrations. A large modification of that kind might too, if he may venture to say so, have impaired the harmony of the composition, and by introducing a multiplicity of details have weakened the impression as a whole, which a single Discourse of this kind, intended to present one connected and comprehensive view, ought, like a poem, to make on the mind.]

29

DISCOURSE II.

ON THE MAMMOTH OR FOSSIL ELEPHANT DISCOVERED AT THE MOUTH OF THE LENA.

It will be in the recollection of many members of this Society, that, in more than one of our geological discussions, allusions have been made to the discovery of a Mammoth or Fossil Elephant at the mouth of the river Lena. Having, soon after those discussions, had occasion to consult one or two works in which the details of this discovery are given, it occurred to me that a short account of it, and of the principal theories which had been formed in reference to it, might be acceptable to the Society, and fill up half an hour at some of its meetings when there was nothing of greater novelty and interest to occupy the atten

tion of the members.

In order to render the subsequent account more intelligible, it may be necessary to premise that the Lena is a river in Eastern Siberia which rises near the lake Baikal, not far from Irkutsk (about lat. 52° and long. 104° from Greenwich), and at no great distance from the northern boundary of the Chinese Empire; and which, after running a course of 3450 geographical miles, discharges itself into

the Frozen Ocean. The situation of its mouth appears to be in about 71° 30' north latitude, and 127° east longitude from the meridian of Greenwich.* This high latitude is sufficient of itself to denote that the climate is rigorous and inhospitable. Constant frost binds the soil of this bleak region, except during a short-lived summer, when the ground is thawed scarcely four feet in depth. The long extent of coast which stretches from Nova Zemlia to the north-eastern termination of Asia, presents nothing, for at least eight months out of the twelve, but a solid sea of polar ice: and even during the short interval of summer, the ice seldom secedes far from any part of the shore. From some parts it is questionable whether it ever secedes at all; and although many expeditions have been undertaken to explore this coast, it does not appear that the whole space has been completely navigated.†

It was in the year 1799, that a Tungusian chief of the name of Schumachoff, who was in this quarter for the sake of hunting, observed among the blocks of ice a large shapeless mass, which he examined on all sides without being able to discover its nature. The next year the object had become more disengaged from the ice, and in the summer of the

* Account of Billings's Expedition to the Northern Parts of Russia, by M. Sauer.

† Account of the Arctic Regions, by William Scoresby, vol.i. p. 315.

following year (1801) the same chief, on his annual excursion, first perceived that it was a gigantic animal, the whole of one side and also one of the tusks being completely laid bare. The summer of 1802 being less warm than the preceding one, the Mammoth appears to have been again blocked up by the frost; but in the subsequent year, the ice which supported the body of the animal having given way, the whole enormous mass fell upon a sandbank.

When thus first exposed to view it appears to have been unmutilated, and in all respects entire, with its hair, skin, and flesh in full preservation. Schumachoff described the animal as so fat and well fed that its belly hung below the joints of its knees. A drawing was made of it by the Tungusians, accompanied by a description; but these were done in so rude a style as to furnish no accurate idea of the animal as it was first seen.

Soon after the body had been found on the sandbank, the chief Schumachoff cut off the tusks and sold them. The Iakutski, inhabitants of the neighbourhood, fed their dogs with the flesh, and what was not consumed in this manner appears to have fallen a prey to the bears, wolves, foxes, and other wild tenants of that wintry region.

The remains of the animal were in this state, when a Mr. Adams, who was at Iakutsk, a town on the Lena about four hundred miles from its mouth, first heard of them, and determined to visit the spot

where they lay. He was accompanied in his visit by the chief before mentioned, who originally discovered this extraordinary object.

The place where Mr. Adams found the Mammoth was about sixty paces distant from the shore, and nearly 100 paces from the escarpment of ice from which it had been precipitated. He describes this hill of ice as about two miles in length; and in that part of it where the Mammoth had been imbedded, its perpendicular elevation was 30 or 40 toises. It consisted of a clear pure ice, and was covered with a layer of earth and moss about 14 inches deep. The Tungusians report, that when the animal was first seen, it was 7 toises below the surface of the ice.

Mr. Adams found the Mammoth greatly mutilated. The skeleton, however, although many of its bones were injured and it was almost entirely cleared of its flesh, remained whole with the exception of one fore leg. Several bones were still held together by the ligaments and parts of the skin; the head was covered by its skin, and a tuft of hairs was upon one of the ears. The proboscis and tail were gone. The skin, of which about threefourths were recovered, was of a dark grey colour, covered with a reddish wool and hairs, and stiff black bristles, and it was of such extraordinary weight that ten persons found a difficulty in transporting it to the shore. Of the hairs which had been trodden into the ground by the wild animals