Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1888-11-09
WILL PRESERVED M.NMoTHs.
One That Was Eaten Eighty, thousand Years
After Burial,


One That Was Eaten Eighty, Thousand Years
After Burial,
It was not unit. the last gear Of the last
century, says the Cornhln Magazine, that
the mammoth vas disentombsd from the
tundra So the complete demolition OF
giants and antjq uaries and the profound
delight OF scientific euq1Ir5fs. IL 1889,
at the very mom5Ds that aFash young
man named Bousparte was upsettipg the
directory and making himself lnconI-
nently into 3 first consul, the people II
Siberia wsre quietly II IJioing II the 7are
and unex sected luxury OF warm sam
mer. IN the course of this Unexpected
climate deb.uoh, Tuugoosian f herman
ia the Lena district went ont one day
hunting for Il ammoth tusks, and was sur
prised to find whole mammoth sticking
out visibly from bank of half thawed
mud. SiberianS stand ra her IN ave of
mammoths; they are reg !rdCd IS i'll some
sort ante5iIuyiau, and therefore uncaany
monsters, and the fisherman accordingly
said nothing of his find but locked up the
secret profoundly in his own bosom.
Next wear, however, he went again
stealthi!y to visit the suspicious creature,
and the wear after that he visited Il q
third time, and so on until the mammoth
was at last fairly thaTed oct and fell by
the sand bank on the shore of the Attic
Ocean. Then the fisherman, seeing the
monster was really dead, summoned up
courage boldly 10 Gu. out the tusks, which
he straig htway sold, on business bent, for
so roubles to 3 Russian merchant. As to
the body itself he thought no more about
that, for the skin and flesh being some
what high, not to say unpleasant, were
not in q condition to form remarkable
commodities. However, ha noticed that
his monster was covered with thick wool
and long hair and that in general shape
it resembled his own unsophisticated idea
of an elephant. Two years later a wan
dering man of science passed that way on
his way to China with Count Golovkin.
Hearing that a mammoth had beer IN
earthed, or rather noticed near the mouth
of the Lena, he turned aside from, mis-
main path to pay his esptcts IL due form
to tie prehistoric monster. He found it,
indeed still recognizable, but quantum
matatus ab lilo, a bare and mutiiated
elaphantine corpse, With scarcely frag-
ment of flesh clinging to the bones of the
huge skeleton. The fishermen around
had cut off the muccles from the body in
great slices to feed the dogs, and the
wolves aid bears mad Toasted their fill on
the frczen and unsavory meat of a for
got en- antiquity.
There Is som sthing positively appal-
ling in the idea of that strange beast,
preserved so fresh 10000 years (the most
modest compute sion), that when once
| more diseptombed 1t was still fit for lu-
! pine food, and for the mater of that
was very properly cooked and eaten in
| part by the uEsophis5icatcd Tang usians
| themselves in person. Though most of
| the flesh had disappeared the skeleton
| still remained almost Intact, held to.
| gether IN places by the uadecay ed liga.
ments; the Ruge eyes yet stared wildly
| from their capaci0ls sockets, the brain
was ulinjured inside the heavy skull,
| one eaf hung uphGct from the sid. of the
head, retaining its long tuft of bTistly
| hair, and IS much OF the skin escaped
| destruction as lea men could carry away
| together. The skeleton was taken to St.
| Petersburg, and there set UP in the mus
cum of the Imperial Academy. 1t has
| frequently sat or stood for its portrait
| since to various artists, and its counter
teit presentmout in black and white
| forms, in fact, the common mammoth o f
| the ordinary wood GUS, almost all of
which are taken from this earliest, the
| best and most perfect specimen. The
only doubtful point about the beast is
the tusks. They were purchased as was
| supposed, from the Russian mel chant
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 quite
| satisfac toriiy determined.