The Nome nugget., 1903-12-12

first puzzled to find it, but the difficulty was solved in a peculiar manner. Here is the report of Dr. Herz upon the dis covery:
 ''Ve were at loss to proceed fur ther for the maps of the district are not detailed and we found ourselves in the midst of vast number of exactly similar ice mounds. Finally, however, my nostrls detected strange odor, and it occurred to me that it might be the flesh of the monster which had be- come uncovered and was decOmpOsing By dint of walking in the direction whence the smell seemed to come, l finally located the grave. In my ex- citement l ran the last mile of the way against the fast-increasing stench. At the grave found faithful Cossack, who, for 50 days, had stood guard over | the carcass at the command of his su- periOr officer. He had covered it over with dry soil to depth of three feet but even through this protection the smell made its way
 Dr. Herz then describes the long hair and thickness of hide of the mammoth and how the stomach was found full of undigested food. The attitude in which he was found shows that he met his death by slipping on slope, for his rear legs are bent up so that it would | be impossible for him to raise himself. Dr. Herz writes:
 "The impromptu grave into which the animal plunged was made of sand and clay, and his fall probably caused masses of neighboring soil to loosen and cover him completely. This hap pened in the late autumn or at the be- ginning of winter, to judge by the vege- table matter found in the stomach: at any rate, shortly afterward the grave became flooded, ice following. This completed the cold storage, still fur ther augmented by vast accumulatiOns of soil all round-a shell of ice hund- reds of feet thick enclosed by yards up on yards of soil that remain frozen for | the greater part of the year. Thus the | enormous carcass was preserved for | how long no one knows, through hund- | reds of centuries perhaps until not so | many years ago some movement of the earth spat forth the fossil mausoleum, | leaving it exposed to sun and wind, until gradually, very gradually, the ice crust wore off and revealed to the pass ing COssack the long hidden treasure. :" | The flesh was treated with arsenic and then sewn up in raw cowhide, which shrinks, becomes airtight and preserves the contents,
 The veins of the mammoth were still full of coagulated blOOd just as they were left when the animal was killed by suffocation. This condition was one of the indications which showed the scientists the way in which the deceased met his end. The mammoth was d young male not over 30 years old. In the teeth were found pieces of the beasts last meal.
 The mammoth was so complete that even his tail was in perfect condition. It was huge affair, with tuft of hair at the end. The stomach of the man. moth was covered with long reddish hair similar to that of the modern Yak bull of the Pamirs. This hair is l4 inches long.
 It was eminently adapted to life in a cold climate, although the modern de- scendant of the mammoth the ele- | phant, is found only in warm one. It is interesting to note that in Eastern Siberia, a country ad acent to that in which the mammoth was found. there are today tigers with very long hair, suited to q cold climate. Their sur roundings are quite different from those of the rest of the tiger family. 1 Dr. Herz transported the mammoth $ remains overland, by sledges, to IT, :, kutsk. Thence they were carried by the Trans-Siberian railroad to Eu- ropean Russia. The journey altogether was over 5000 miles.