The Sully County watchman. (Clifton, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1894, 1888-11-17
WELL PRESERVED MAMMoTHs.
One That Was Eaten Eighty, Thousand Years
After Burial,

One That Was Eaten Eighty. Thousand Years
After Burial,
1t was not unit. the last year OF the las.
century, says the Cornhill Magazine, that
the mammoth was disentombed from the
tundra to the complete demolition of
giants aud antiquaries and the profound
delight of scientific enquirers. In 1899,
a. the very moment that rash young
man named Bonaparte was upsettiDg the
directory and making himself inconti
nently into a first consul, the people of
Siberia ware quietly rejoicing in the rare
and unex sected luxury of a warm sum
mer. In the course of this unex pected
o!mate debauch, Tungoosian fisherman
ia the Lena district went out one day
hunting for L ammoth tusks, and was sur
prised TO find u whole mammoth sticking
ont visibly from bank of half thawed
mud. Siberian5 stand rather in awe OF
mammoths; they are regarded us in some
sort anteGiluvian, and therefore uncanny
monsters, and the fisherman accordingly
said nothing of his find bat locked up the
secret profoundly In his own bosom.
Next year, however, he went again
stcalthi!y to visit the suspicious creature,
and the year after that he visited il n
was at last fairly tha~ed out snd fell hy
the sand bank on the shore Of the Artic
Ocean. Then the fisherman, seeing the
monster was realty dead, summoned up
courage boldly TO Gus out the tusks, which
he straightway sold, on business bent, for
80 roubles to Rnssian merchant. As TO
the body itself he thought no more about
that, for the skin and hesh being some
what high, not TO say unpleasant, were
not in a condition TO fern remarkable
commodities. However, h- noticed that
his monster was covered with thick wool
and long hair and that in general shape
il resembled his own uusophisticated idea
of an elephant. Two years later wan.
dering man of science passed that way on
his way to China with Count Golovkin.
Hearing that a mammoth had been un-
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 il,
indeed still recognizable, but quantum
mutatus ab lilo, "a bare and mutiiated
elaphantine corpse, with scarcely frag
nent of flesh cinging to the bones of the
huge ekeleton. The fishermen around
had cut off the muccles from the body III
great slices to feed the dogs, and the
wolves AID bears had feaste6 their fill on
the frozen and unsavory meat of for
got en- antiquity.
There Is something positively appal.
| ling in the idea of that strange beast,
preserved SO fresh $4,000 years (the mos.
modest computa'ionl, that when once
more aisentombed IL WAS still tit for lu-
| pine food, and for the matter of that
was very properly cooked and eaten in
part by the ursophisticated Tungusians
themselves in person. Though most of
the flesh had disappeared the skeleton
| still remained almost iutdct, held TO.
| gether in places by the uudscayed liga
ments; the huge eyes yet stared wildly
from their capacious sockets, the brain
was uainjured inside the heavy skull,
one eat hung unhurt from the side of the
head, retaining its long tuft of bristly
| hair, and as much of the skin escaped
| destruction as ten men could carry away
together. The skeleton was taken to st.
Petersburg, and there set up in the mus.
cum OF tho Imperial Academy. 1t has
| frequently sat or stood for its portrait
since To various artists, and its counter
felt presentment i'll black and white
forms, in fact, the common mammoth o f
the ordinary wood cuts, 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 merchant
who had bought them from their original
discoverer; bat whether he sold back the
right pair or another set like them that
fitted equally well, has never been quite
satisfactorily determined.
| Mr.. Edison intends to utilize the pond
of water which now separates his labora-
tory from his new phonograph factory.
He will build u small ferry boat to be run
by electricity, and il will be run back and
forth from the laboratory to the factory
every half hour.