level became sloped, and this enormous mass, pushed forward by its own weight, fell over upon its side on a sand-bank. Of this, two Toungouses were witnesses who accompanied me in my journey. In the month of March, 1804, Schoumachoff came to his mammoth, and, having got his horns cut off, he exchanged them, with Baltounoff, the merchant, for merchandise of the value of fifty roubles. On this occasion a drawing of the animal was made, but it was very incorrect. They described it with pointed ears, very small eyes, horse's hoofs, and a bristly mane along the whole of his back; so that the drawing represented something between a pig and an elephant."

Two years afterwards, being the seventh from the discovery of the mammoth, a fortunate circumstance occasioned my visit to these distant and desert regions, and I congratulate myself on having it in my power to ascertain and verify a fact, which would otherwise be thought so improbable.

I found the mammoth still upon the same slope, but completely mutilated. The prejudices against it having been dissipated, because the Toungouse chief had recovered his health, the carcase of the mammoth might be approached without any obstacle. The proprietor was content with the profit he had already derived from it, and the Jakouts of the neighbourhood tore off the flesh, with which they fed their dogs. Ferocious animals of the north pole; white bears, gluttons, wolves, and foxes preyed upon it also, and their burrows were seen in the neighbourhood. The skeleton, almost completely unfleshed, was entire, with the exception of one of the fore feet. The spondyle, from the head to the osCoccygis, a shoulder-blade, the pelvis, and the remains of the three extremities, were still tightly attached by the nerves of the joints, and by strips of skin on the exteriour side of the carcase. The head VOL. III.

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was covered with a dry skin; one of the ears, well preserved, was furnished with a tuft of bristles. All these parts must, necessarily have suffered by a carriage of 11,000 wersts. The eyes, however, are preserved, and we can still distinguish the ball of the left eye. The tip of the under lip has been eaten away, and the upper part being destroyed, exhibited the teeth. The brain was still within the cranium, but it appeared dry.

The parts least damaged are a fore foot and a hind one. They are covered with skin, and have still the sole attached. According to the assertion of the Toungouse chief, the animal had been so large and well fed, that its belly hung down below the knee joints. This mammoth is a male, with a long mane at his neck; but it has no tail and no trunk. The skin, three-fourths of which are in my possession, is of a deep gray, and covered with a reddish hair and black bristles. The humidity of the soil where the animal has lain so long, has made the bristles lose some of their elasticity. The entire carcase, the bones of which I collected upon the spot, is four archines and a half high, by seven long, from the tip of the nose to the coccyx [about nine. feet high by fourteen feet long] without, however, comprehending the two horns, each of which is a toise and a half long, and both together weigh ten pouds [nearly 400 pounds.] The head alone weighs eleven pouds and a half [4 1-2 cwt.]

The principal object of my care was, to separate the bones, to arrange them, and place them in safety. This was done with the most scrupulous nicety; and I had the satisfaction of finding the other shoulder-blade, which lay in a hole. I afterwards caused the skin to be stripped from the side upon which the animal had lain; it was very well preserved. This skin was of such an extraordinary weight, that ten persons, who were employed to carry it to the seaside, in order to stretch it on float

ing wood, moved it with great difficulty. After this operation, I caused the ground to be dug in various places, in order to see if there were any bones around, but chiefly for the purpose of collecting all the bristles which the white bears might have trodden into the wet ground on devouring the flesh. This operation was attended with difficulty, as we wanted the necessary instruments for digging the ground. I succeeded, however, in procuring, in this manner, more than one poud [forty pounds weight] of bristles. In a few days our labour was ended, and I found myself in possession of a treasure, which amply recompensed me for the fatigues and dangers of the journey, and even for the expenses I had incurred.

The place where I found the mammoth is about sixty paces distant from the shore; and from the fracture of the ice, from which it slid, it is about one hundred paces distant. This fracture occupies the middle, precisely, between the two points of the isthmus, and is three wersts long, and even in the place where the mammoth was, this rock has a perpendicular elevation of thirty or forty toises. Its substance is a clear ice, but of a nauseous taste: it inclines towards the sea: its summit is covered with a bed of moss, and friable earth, half an archine in thickness. During the heat of the month of July, a part of this crust melts, but the other remains frozen.

Curiosity prompted me to ascend two hillocks, equally distant from the sea. They were of the same composition, and also a little covered with moss. At intervals I saw pieces of wood, of an enormous size, and of all the species produced in Siberia; and also, mammoth horns in great quantities, frozen between the fissures of the rocks. They appeared to be of an astonishing freshness.

It is as curious as it is difficult to explain, how all these things should be found collected here. The inhabitants of the coast call this kind of

wood Adamsohina, and distinguish it from the floating wood, which, descending the great rivers of Siberia, falls into the ocean, and is afterwards heaped upon the shores of the Frozen Sea. This last kind they call Noahsohina. I have seen, in great thaws, large pieces of earth detach themselves from the hillocks, mix with the water, and form thick and muddy torrents which roll slowly towards the sea. This earth forms, in different places, lumps which sink in among the ice. The block of ice, where the mammoth was found, was from thirty five to forty toises high; and, according to the account of the Toungouses, the animal, when first discovered, was seven toises from the surface of the ice.

The whole shore was, as it were, covered with the most variegated and beautiful plants produced on the shores of the Frozen Sea; but they were only two inches high. Around the carcase we saw a multitude of other plants, such as the Cineraria aquatica, and some species of Pedicularis, not yet known in natural history.

While waiting for the boats from Terra Firma, for which I had sent some Cossacks, we exerted all our endeavours to erect a monument to perpetuate the memory of this discovery, and of my visit. We raised, according to the custom of these countries, two crosses with analogous inscriptions. The one was upon the rock of ice, forty paces from the shelf from which this mammoth had slid, and the other was upon the very spot where we found it. Each of these crosses is six French toises high, and constructed in a manner solid enough to brave the severity of many ages. The Toungouses have given to the one the name of the cross of the ambassadour, and to the other, that of the cross of the mammoth. The eminence itself received the name of Selichaëta, or mammoth mountain. This last will, perhaps, some day or other, afford some traveller the means of calculating,

with sufficient precision, how much the mountains of ice, lose annually, of their primitive height.

I found a great quantity of amber upon the shores; but in no piece whatever could I discover the least trace of any marine production.

Our Cossacks not having arrived in time with the boat, I was obliged to return to the continent with my rain-deer, without waiting for them. The vessel, in the mean time, had cast anchor in the bay of Borchaya, three hundred wersts from the isthmus where I was. We arrived without any accident, after a journey of eight days. A week afterwards I had the satisfaction to see the mammoth arrive. Our first care was to separate, by boiling, the nerves and flesh from the bones. The skeleton was then packed, and placed at the bottom of the hold. When we arrived at Jakoutsk, I had the good fortune to purchase the tusks of the mammoth; and thence I despatched the whole for St. Petersburgh.

Are the mammoth and elephant animals of the same species? The teeth of the mammoth are harder, heavier, and more twisted in a different direction than the teeth of an elephant. Ivory turners, who have wrought upon these two substances, say that the mammoth's horn, by its colour and inferiour density, differs considerably from ivory. I have seen some of them which formed, in their curvature, three fourths of a circle. And at Jakoutsk, another of the length of two toises and a half, and which were an archine thick, near the root, and weighed seven pouds. It is to be remarked, that the point of the tusks on the exteriour side, is always more or less worn down. This enables the inhabitants of the Frozen Sea to distinguish the right from the left tusk.

feet, which were found upon the head, the ears, and the neck of the animal, must necessarily have belonged, either to the mane or to the tail. Schoumachoff maintains that he never saw any trunk belonging to the animal; but it is probable that it was carried off by wild beasts; for it would be inconceivable that the mammoth could eat with so small a snout, and with such enormous tusks, if we do not allow it to have had a trunk. The mammoth, according to these indications, would, consequently, belong to the elephant species. M. Blumenback, in his system, actually calls it Elephas primavus.

The mammoth in my possession is quite different from that found near New York, which had carnivorous teeth.

Another question still remains to be decided. Has the mammoth, originally, inhabited the countries of the pole, or those of the tropicks? The thick hair with which this animal is covered seems to indicate, that it belonged to the northern regions. To this it does not seem reasonable to start objections, although several writers have done so; but, what remains inexplicable is, to ascertain, how came the mammoth to be buried in the ice. Two years ago similar relicks were found in the environs of Kirengsk, upon the banks of the Lena, at a greater distance from the sea, and they had fallen into the bed of the river. Others have been found in provinces further south; on the Wolga; and they have been discovered in Germany and in Spain. These are just so many incontestable proofs of a general deluge. It appears undeniable to me, that there has existed a world of a very ancient date; and Cuvier, without intending it, gives evident proofs of this in his system, by the twenty four species of animals, the races of which are extinct. MICHAEL ADAMS,*

Petersburgh, August 20, 1807.

TIIE stupendous mountain of stone, called, by the Dutch, Adam's Brecht or Berg, by the Cingalese, Mulgeerelenna, alias Mulgeeregalla, is one entire rock, of a smooth surface, rising in the form of a cube, on two sides completely perpendicular. From a measurement lately made it was found to be only three hundred feet high. It strikes the beholder, however, as being much more; and the Cingalese, the only inhabitants of this part of the country, say, that by dropping a rope from the top to the bottom of the rock, they ascertained the height to be three hundred and forty cubits. We ascended its highest summit, on the side where the rising is most gentle, by a winding flight of stairs, formed of five hundred and forty five deep steps of hewn stones. These stairs must have been a work of prodigious labour, and are said to have been constructed fifteen hundred years ago, at a period long before European conquerors made their appearance in the island. At one place it is necessary to ascend a part of the rock which is nearly perpendicular. There, twenty hollow steps are hewn out of the stone on a smooth surface, by the side of which is hung an iron chain to assist the traveller in climbing. To render the ascent less dangerous, it is prudent to put off one's shoes; but coming down is attended with more difficulty, and requires still greater caution. A journey up such a flight of steps affords a powerful exercise to the lungs; and, under the full blaze of the meridian sun, the excessive heat cannot be described. On the summit, which is circular and level, stands a bell-shaped tomb of Buddha, similar to that which accompanies every temple dedicated to the Cingalese divinity. From this eminence we are gratified with a sight of one of the most extensive and romantick prospects which nature can display. The

eye looks down upon a wide country, in appearance the richest and most luxuriant which imagination can conceive. The nearest mountains look like hillocks. Mighty ranges of hills rise one behind another, the most distant appearing the most majestick. Green valleys wind among them like rivers; and the fields are enclosed with borders of trees and flowering shrubs planted without the aid of art. In cutting down the jungle and clearing the soil for the purpose of agriculture, belts of wood have been allowed to stand, dividing and protecting the cultivated grounds, and presenting a highly ornamental as well as useful enclosure. A level country appears running behind many of the mountains, the picturesque appearance of which is heightened by multitudes of massy rocks and aged trees. On one side, the view is terminated by the sea, at the distance of eight miles, making a large sweep along the coast, on which we discover the situations of Tengallee, Matura, and Belligam. In another direction, the prospect is bounded by fine mountains within the British territories. In a third, we look into the wild dominions of the king of Candy. The broadest valleys resemble the most beautiful parts of Yorkshire, in England, but are still more highly adorned. The whole scenery combined exhibits an appearance of the most perfect culture, disseminated through an extensive province, the hedges of which have been nourished with care, and the woods and lawns laid out by a person of the finest taste.

On the second flat from the top is the entrance into a remarkable cave. By some violent convulsion, the solid mass seems to have been split asunder; the perforation at first descending perpendicularly, then slanting, and issuing out, about the middle of the rock, in a round orifice, through which we see the light, and

no

part of the country below. People have gone down into the cave, and when at the end of it could discover means of descending to the ground. On the same flat stands an elegant bogaha, or hallowed fig tree, having a circular wall, three feet high, built, at some distance, round it, the intermediate space filled with earth, and a small temple erected under the shade of its spreading boughs.

About half way up the staircase are two gloomy temples of Buddha contiguous to one another. They are both caverns excavated out of the solid rock. Front walls and tiled roofs are united to a projecting cliff, which is formed, within, into arched domes. In each of these temples is an image of Buddha, in a reclining posture, forty-five feet in length, and of proportionable breadth, formed of stone and plaster. There are, likewise, a great many statues, of the common size, standing in ranks, all in the dress of Buddha, and called his disciples. The inner walls are covered with hieroglyphick paintings, not meanly executed. One of these sanctuaries is at present undergoing repair. The roof is heightened by a strong fire kindled within the cave, occasioning large splinters to fall from the hollow cliff, and supplying materials for building the walls. Before the portal of this temple stands a square reservoir of good water, enclosed with walls of hewn stone. About fifty steps from the bottom of the rock are two other temples, executed and furnished in the same manner.

At the foot of this rock are situate the houses of the priests, built of stone and lime, with tiled roofs, and stored with every comfort necessary to their happiness. Ten of the sacerdotal order reside here, some of them old men, others only boys, all having their heads shaved bare, and wearing the same yellow mantle, which is the dress of Buddha, and very graceful. Those who have been once dedicated to the priesthood

never engage in any secular clined, ment beside decorating the temp and designing historical painting on the walls. In the province of Matura there are said to be two thousand individuals of that description, a great many temples of Buddha, and a considerable number of inhabitants. It is the most beautiful and best cultivated tract in the southern corner of the island, and yields a considerable revenue to government. It abounds in oranges, pomegranates, pineapples, and other fruits, all of the most deliciou quality. But, notwithstanding the advantages which this part of the country enjoys, it is unhealthy; and the inhabitants are frequently attacked with fevers, attributed to the quantity of putrid vegetable matter, obstructed circulation, and sudden transitions from sultry heat to chlilly cold. We descended, however, from the mountains without feeling any unpleasant consequences, and not a little captivated with the striking aspect of the province which visited. There is something so extravagantly romantick in those sequestred spots, that they inspire the mind with unusual pleasure. A traveller, who delights to contemplate the face of sportive nature, may there behold her unblemished features and undisguised charms; and a person who is fond of meditation and recollection of past events, may here enjoy all the luxury of solitude. Every discordant passion is lulled to rest. The most complacent benevolence warms the soul; and the mind triumphs in unbounded freedom amidst peaceful tranquillity. The wildness and luxuriance, the sublimity and beauty of the scenes, probably equal any combination which rural grandeur can display. Whilst employed in contemplating them, the power of utterance is lost in silent admiration, and the eye wanders with astonishment and rapture from the rocky brow of the lofty mountain to the rich pastures of the fertile valley.

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