borealis_,
Brod. 1-1/2. 15. _Natica helicoides_, Johnst. Nat. size. ]

[Footnote 212: _Bihang till Vet. Akad. Handl._ Bd. iv. No. 11,
p. 42. ]

[Footnote 213: Provisions and wares intended for trade with the
natives are transported on the Yenisej, as on many other Siberian
rivers, down the stream in colossal lighters, built of planks like
logs. It does not pay to take them up the river again, on which
account, after their lading has been taken out of them, they are
either left on the bank to rot or broken up for the timber. ]

CHAPTER IX.

The New Siberian Islands--The Mammoth--Discovery of Mammoth
and Rhinoceros mummies--Fossil Rhinoceros horns--Stolbovoj
Island--Liachoff's Island--First discovery of this island--
Passage through the sound between this island and the
mainland--Animal life there--Formation of ice in water above
the freezing point--The Bear Islands--The quantity and
dimensions of the ice begin to increase--Different kinds of
sea-ice--Renewed attempt to leave the open channel along
the coast--Lighthouse Island--Voyage along the coast to
Cape Schelagskoj--Advance delayed by ice, shoals, and fog--
First meeting with the Chukches--Landing and visits to Chukch
villages--Discovery of abandoned encampments--Trade with
the natives rendered difficult by the want of means of
exchange--Stay at Irkaipij--Onkilon graves--Information
regarding the Onkilon race--Renewed contact with the Chukches
--Kolyutschin Bay--American statements regarding the state
of the ice north of Behring's Straits--The _Vega_ beset.

After the parting the _Lena_ shaped her course towards the land; the
_Vega_ continued her voyage in a north-easterly direction towards
the new Siberian Islands.

These have, from the time of their discovery, been renowned among
the Russian ivory collectors for their extraordinary richness in
tusks and portions of skeletons of the extinct northern species of
elephant known by the name of _mammoth_.

We know by the careful researches of the academicians PALLAS, VON
BAER, BRANDT, VON MIDDENDORFF, FR. SCHMIDT, &c., that the mammoth
was a peculiar northern species of elephant with a covering of hair,
which, at least during certain seasons of the year, lived under
natural conditions closely resembling those which now prevail in
middle and even in northern Siberia. The widely extended grassy
plains and forests of North Asia were the