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 I have 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 part of their elasticity. The entire carcase, the bones of which I collected upon the spot, is 4 archines and a half high by 7 long, from the tip of the nose to the coccyx*; without, however, comprehending the two horns, each of which is a toise and a half long, and both together weigh 10 pouds +. The head alone weighs eleven pouds

and a half.

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 shoulderblade, 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 sea side, in order to stretch it on floating 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

An archine is a little more than two

feet English measure. A poud is forty pounds,

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 oper ation 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 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 expences I had incurred.

The place where I found the Mammoth is about 60 paces distant from the shore; and from the fracture of the ice from which it slid, it is about 100 paces distant: this fracture occupies precisely the middle between the two points of the isthmus, and is three versts long, and even in the place where the Mammoth was, this rock has a perpendicular elevation of 30 or 40 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 other 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 are to be found collected here. The inhabi-, tants 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 heap

ed

ed 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 35 to 40 toises high; and, according to the account of the Toungouses, the animal, when first discovered, was seven toises from the sur face 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 car case 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 Cossacs, we exerted all our endeavours to erect a monument to perpetuate the memory of this discovery, and my visit. We raised, according to the custom of these countries, two crosses with analagous inscriptions. The one was upon the rock of ice, 40 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 6 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 ambassador, 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 pther afford a traveller the means of calculating with sufficient precision how much the mountains of ice lose annually of their primitive height.

I made two additional excursions for the purpose of acquiring some

more precise notions upon the nature of this peninsula, and my discoveries in zoology and botany perfectly answered my expectations. 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. I should perhaps attribute this to the proximity of the river, and perhaps also to the depth of the sea, or abruptness of the shore. I had occasion to examine more closely the effects of the flux and reflux: this has escaped M. Sauer, who saw nothing of it at the mouth of the Colima.

Our Cossacs not having arrived in time with the boats, I was obliged to return to the continent with my rein deer, without waiting for them. The vessel in the mean time had cast anchor in the bay of Borchaya, three hundred versts from the isthmus where

I was.

We arrived without any ac

cident, 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 Iakoutsk, I had the good fortune to purchase the tusks of the Mammoth; and thence I dispatched the whole for St Petersburgh.

A question of some magnitude remains to be resolved: Are the Mammoth and Elephant animals of the same species, as asserted by Buffon, Pallas, Isbrand Ides, Gmelin, and, above all, Daubenton? or should we, in preference, rely upon the opinion of M. Cuvier, who asserts that the Mammoth occupies the second place among the extinct species of animals? As Ĭ do not intend, in this place, to make an exact comparison of the skeletons of a Mammoth and an Elephant, I shall content myself with relating here some characteristic marks which distinguish the two species, I reserve, for a particular mempir, some more de

tailed observations upon this subject. I shall here recapitulate the motives which induced me to adopt the opinion of M. Cuvier.

1. If the writers whom I have mentioned have actually made, as I suppose, zootomical comparisons, they have been able to do so very incompletely, and upon detached pieces; for neither the head, nor the whole verte bræ, nor the feet of the Mammoth covered with flesh and hair, and furnished with the sole, have ever yet been examined, when collected together by any writer.

The presence of the coccyx, which finishes the vertebral column, convinces me that the animal has had a very short and thick tail, like its feet: its being every where covered with bristles induces me to think that they cannot be those of an ordinary elephant.

2. 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 inferior density, differs con

choff maintains that he never saw any trunk belonging to the animal, but it is probable that it was carried off by the 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, and M. Blumenbach, in his system, actually calls it Elephas primavus.

To conclude:-The Mammoth in my possession is quite different from that found near New York, which, from the description given in the Journal called the Museum des Wondervollen, had carnivorous teeth. M. Cuvier has proved in a most satisfactory manner, that the Mammoth is a particular species of antediluvian animals.

some of them which form in their curvature three fourths of a circle; and at lakoutsk, 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 exterior side is always more or less worn down; this enables the inhabitants of the Frozen Sea to distinguish the right from the left tusk.

The Mammoth is covered with a very thick hair through the whole body, and has a long mane upon its neck. Even admitting that I doubted the stories of my travelling companions, it is nevertheless evident that the bristles of the length of an archine, which were also found upon the head, the ears, and the neck of the animal, must necessarily have belonged either to the main or the tail, Schouma

6IR,

A

BIRD.

MONG the various pursuits and

amusements of boy-hood, none seems to be more general than that of bird-nesting. The feathered race became at a very early period the darling object of my attention. At what age I first went in quest of their nests I do not precisely know; but that I was not very old, I conclude from this, that I remember one morning, during my first campaign, after some hours of fruitless search, prostrating myself behind a whin bush, and praying with as much fervour and sincerity perhaps as I have ever done since, that I might be allowed to find one nest, promising at the same time that I would neither herry it, nor allow it to be herried.

Many

Many summers have now rolled over my head since that guiltless period, yet I have still some remains of my early attachment to the little innocents. I no longer indeed make them the subject of my prayers; I no longer range the wood in search of their dwellings, but I still admire the beauty of their plumage, I still delight in the harmony of the groves.

I never was more charmed with the feathered warblers than I was this season, during the latter part of the month of May, which I spent on the banks of the Ayr. The weather was delightful, and the woods resounded with their tuneful inhabitants. In all this, however, there was nothing un-. common: it was what every one in the country at that season must have heard, though perhaps not in the same perfection. The circumstance I am going to mention, however, is by no means so common, and it is for the sake of it that I trouble you with this epistle.

I was informed one day by a lady of any acquaintance, that for some preceding nights she and some other people had been surprised and delighted with a remarkable bird, which began to sing at eleven o'clock at night, and continued to serenade them till early in the morning. No person knew what kind of a bird it was, but they suspected that it was a Nightingale.This excited my curiosity. A nightingale north of the Tweed would indeed be a wonder; and though I resided at a considerable distance, I resolved to return at that late hour to have my curiosity gratified. Some alledged, and perhaps with some truth, that there were other attractions which had as powerful an influence over me as the notes of the nightingale. Be that as it may, I returned punctually at the hour, and the bird began with equal Its notes were indeed sweet and pleasing, but I concluded at once that it was not a nightingale. Instead of the melancholy strains of

exactness.

philomel, it had rather a sprightly note, more like the song of the thrush than any other bird I know; though some of its notes seemed to be borrowed from the sky-lark. I am inclined to believe that it was the woodlark; but I would be much obliged to any of your omithological correspondents for their opinion in this matter. If it is a woodlark, I would like to know if the woodlark sings often at night, and if it is to be met with in most parts of Scotland, or in those only that are well wooded. The gentleman who writes the natural history memoirs can easily satisfy me, I am sure, if he think it worth his while.

I am, Sir, yours, &c.

Jan. 10. 1808.
Edinburgh,

}

ORNITHOPHILUS.

Extracts from Travels in BARBARY, by the SIEUR MOUETTE, in 1670, &c. THIS gentleman, who was of

French extraction, having set out from Dieppe for the West Indies, was taken by a pirate, and carried to the port of Salee. He was then removed to Tetuan, where he remained eleven years, and collected some curious anecdotes, a few of which, as the book is not at all known, we have extracted for the amusement of our readers. The volume is printed London

1710.

Those who buy slaves observe their countenance, and look into their hands, to see if they are labouring men, or well born: when they meet with one that has a curious complexion, and soft hands, they conclude he is rich, and that makes them advance upon one another for the poor creature, hoping, when they have him, to exact à considerable ransom, and therefore 'tis afterwards hard to get out of their hands. Our knight of Malta, and the lady his mother, were sold for 1500 crowns. I being left the last of all the company, after the crier had well walked me about, and cried herech herech, was bought for 360 crowns, and delivered to my masters, who were four in number. One of their servants carried me to a public house, where strangers are entertained, as in our inns, and which they call Tondaques. Three of my masters, who had only one half of me, came thither immediately to see me. The eldest of them was called Mahomet le Maraxchy, and was farmer of the King's weights. The second, whose name was Mahomet Liebus, was a merchant of wool and oil; and a very good man, as I afterwards found by experience. The third was Rabbi Yemin, a Jew. They brought me some clothes, and then Maraxchy carried me home for his wife to see me. She presently brought me a white loaf, butter, honey, and some dates and some raisins of the sun, saying coul, coul, that is, eat, eat. Having not broke my fast before, I soon made an end of all she brought me, and she seeing I had done, would have given me more; but taking off my cap, I gave her to understand I had enough.

Then Maraxchy carried me back to the first house, where the Jew came to me again, and made a compliment in Spanish which I did not then understand, but know since, it was to this effect: "Courage, Sir, God is great and powerful: He will deliver you

from the misfortune you are fallen into through the perils and hazards of the sea." Then he asked me whether I had a father and mother, and wherewith to ransom myself? Having been before instructed by the christian slaves. that were aboard the pirate, how I was to behave myself, to try masters when they examined me, I told the Jew, he was much mistaken in calling me Sir, for I was the poorest fellow of all our company, and not able to give him the value of a crown. He did not seem to believe me, and went on saying, He pity'd my youth, and therefore if I would agree with him, he would prevail with my other masters to give me my liberty at a very easy rate. I replied, that if a penny would purchase my liberty, I was not able to give it. Well, said he, if you have nothing, as you pretend, you may at least write a letter to your relations, for them to gather alms to get out of our hands, for if you will not, we shall load you with four chains, beat you like a dog, and starve you in a dungeon. Having heard these dismal words, I asked for pen, ink, and paper, which a renegado, who was our interpreter, immediately brought in. I writ a letter in the most moving words I could think of directing it to my brother, whom I made a cobler, desiring him to beg as far as forty or fifty crowns, and give them to the fathers that go upon the redemption of captives, that they might remember me when they came into the country. He caused the renegado to write the letter to him, who, thinking I had wrote the truth, told the Jew they had certainly been deceived in giving so great a price for me, for which reason they ceased persecuting of me.

Most of the contents of this book plainly shew the miserable condition of the slaves in Africk, and the dangers they are daily exposed to of renouncing their faith, or perishing by the cruelty of their masters and keeps

ers.