Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1888-08-11
WELL PRESERVED MAMMOThS.
One That Was Eaten About so, 600 Years
After Burial.

AFTER burial
It was not till the last year Of the last cen
fury that the first mammoth was disen-
tombed from the tundra, to the complete
demolition of giants and antiquaries, and the
profound delight Of scientific inQuirerS. In
1893, at the very moment when a rash young
man of the name OF Bonaparte was upsetting
the Directory and making himself inconti-
nently into first consul, the people OF Slbe-
ria We're quietly rejoicing i'll the rare and I'M
expected luxury of a warm summer. In the
course Of this unexpected climatic debauch
Tunpusian fisherman in the Lena district
went out one day hunting for mammoth
tusks, and was surprised to find instead q
whole mammoth sticking out yisibly from a
bank of half thawed mud Siberians stand
rather in awe of mamnoths: they are re-
Earded as in some sort antediluvian. and
therefore uncanny monsters, and the fisher
man accordingly said nothing Of his find to
any man anywhere, but locked up the secret
profoundly in his own bosom.
Next year, however, he went again stealth
lily TO visit the suspicious creature, and the
year after that he visited it third time, and
SO on, until the mammoth at last
fairly thawed out, and fell on the saDdbank
by the shore Of the Arctic ocean. Then the
fisherman, seeing the monster was really
dead, summoned up courage boldly to cut out
the tusks, which he straightway sold, on
business bent for fifty roubics to o Russian
merchant. As to the body Itself, he thought
no more in any way about that, for the skin
and flesh being somewhat high, not to say
unpleasant, were not in a condition to form
remarkable commodities However, he no
ticed that his monster was covered with long
hair and thick wool, and that in general
shape it roughly resembled his own unsophiS-
ticated idea of an elephant. Two years later
wandering man Of science passed that way
on his road to China with Count Golovkin.
Hearing that mammoth had been I'M
earthed, or, rather, noticed, near the mouth
Of the Lena, he turned aside from his main
path to pay his respects in due form to the
prehistoric monster. He found it, indeed,
still recognizable, but quantum mutatus alb
lilo, a bare and mutilated elephantine corpse,
with scarce fragment of flesh clinging to
the bones OF the huge skeleton. The fisher
men around had cut off the muscles from the
body il great slices to feed their dogs, and
the wolves and bears had Toasted their fill
on the frozen and unsayory meat Of for
gotten antiquity.
mere 10 SOlActll1ite
the idea Of that strange beast, preserved so
fresh for $4,000 years ION the most modest
computation), that when once more olsen
tombed it was still fit for lupfne food, and
for the matter OF that was very probably
cooked and eaten in part by the unsophisti-
Gated Tungusians themselves in person. But
though most of the flesh had disappeared the
skeleton still remained almost intact, held
together in places by the undecayed lga-
ments; the huge eyes yet stared wildly from
their capacious sockets, tho brain was unin-
jured within the heavy skull, one ear hung
unhurt from the side of the head, retaining
its long tuft of bristly hair, and much Of
the skin had escaped destruction as ten men
could carry away together. The skeleton
was taken to St. Petersburg, and there set up
in the museum of the imperial academy. 1t
has frequently sat or stood for its portrait
since to various artists, and its counterfeit
presentment in black and white forms, in
fact, the common mammoth Of the ordinary
wood cuts, almost all of which are taken from
this earliest, the best and most perfect spec-
men. The only doubtful point about the
beast is the tusks They were purchased, as
was supposed, from the Russian merchant
who had bought them from their original
discoverer; but whether he sold back the
right pair or another set like them that fitted
equally well, has never been QTiR satisfac-
torily determined-OornhiU Magazine.
NJ