Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1888-11-15
WE'LL PRESERVED MAMMOTHS.
One That Was Eaten Eighty, Thousand Years
After. Burial,

One That was Eaten Eighty. Thousand Years
After.Burial,
It was not unit, the last year of the last
century, says the Cornh1ll Magazine, that
the mammoth was disentombed from the
tundra to the complete demolition of
giants and antiq uaries and the profound
delight of scientific enquirers. In 1893,
at the very moment that arash young
man named Bonaparte was upsettiDg the
directory and making himself inconti-
nently into first consul, the people of
Siberia were quietly rejoicing in the rare
and Unexpected luxury of warm sum
mer. In the course of this unexpected
climate debauch, Tungoosian fisherman
ia the Lena district went out one day
hunting for n ammoth tusks, and was sur
prised to find whole mammoth sticking
out visibly from bank of half thawed
mud. Siberian5 stand rather in awe of
mammoths; they are regarded as in some
sort ante6iluvian, and therefore uncanny
monsters, and the fisherman accordingly
said nothing of his find but locked up the
secret profoundly in his own bosom.
Next year, however, he went again
stealthi1y to visit the suspicious creature,
and the year after that he visited it
was at last fairly thawed out 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 to cut out the tusks, which
he straightway sold, on business bent, for
so roubles to 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 a condition to form remarkable
commodities. However, he noticed that
his monster was covered with thick wool
and long hair and that in general shape
1t resembled his OWE unsophisticated 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 mammoth had beer 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 alb lilo, bare and mutilated
ella phantine corpse, with scarcely a frag
ment of flesh clinging to the bones of the
huge skeleton. The fishermen around
had cut Off the pnuccies from the body in
great slices TO feed the dogs, and the
wolves aid bears had toasted their fill! on
the frOz9n and nnsayory meat of for
got gu antiquity.
There Is eom e5hing positively appai-
ling in the idea Of that strange beast,
preserved SO fresh $4,000 years (the most
| modest computation), that when once
more disen5onbed 1t was still fi5 for lu-
pine food, and for the matter OF that
was very properly cooked and eaten in
part by the unsophisticated Tungusians
| themselves in person. Though most of
| the flesh had disappeared the skeleton
still remained almost intact, held to-
gether IL places by the undecayed riga
| menfs; the huge eyes yet stared wildly
from their capacious sockets, the brain
was uninjured inside the heavy skull,
one ear hung unhurt from the side Of the
| head, retaining it's long tuft of bzistly
| hair, and rs much Of the skin escaped
destruction as ten men could carry away
| together. The skeleton was taken to s..
| Petersburg, and there set Up in the nus
cum Of the Imperial Academy. 1t has
| frequently sat or stood for its portrait
since to various artists, and its counter
felt presentment in black and white
| forms, in fact, the common mammoth o I
| the ordinary wood cuts, almost ali 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
| satisf actOrily determined.