dred kilometres from the Polar Sea. With respect to these
_finds_ I can only refer to a paper by L. VON SCHRENCK in the
_Bulletin_ of the St. Petersburg Academy, T. XVI. 1871, p. 147.

Under the guidance of natives I collected in 1876 at the confluence
of the river Mesenkin with, the Yenisej, in 71 deg. 28' N.L., some
fragments of bones and pieces of the hide of a mammoth. The hide was
20 to 25 millimetres thick and nearly tanned by age, which ought not
to appear wonderful, when we consider that, though the mammoth lived
in one of the latest periods of the history of our globe, hundreds
of thousands, perhaps millions of years have, however, passed since
the animal died to which these pieces of skin once belonged. It was
clear that they had been washed by the neighbouring river Mesenkin
out of the tundra-bank, but I endeavoured, without success, to
discover the original locality, which was probably already concealed
by river mud. In the neighbourhood was found a very fine cranium of
the musk ox.

A new and important _find_ was made in 1877 on a tributary of the
Lena, in the circle Werchojansk, in 69 deg. N.L. For there was
found there an exceedingly well preserved carcase of a rhinoceros
(_Rhinoceros Merckii_, Jaeg.), a different species from the Wilui
rhinoceros examined by Pallas. However, before the carcase was
washed away by the river, there had only been removed the
hair-covered head and one foot.[230] From the _find_ Schrenck draws
the conclusion that this rhinoceros belonged to a high-northern
species, adapted to a cold climate, and living in, or at least
occasionally wandering to, the regions where the carcase was found.
There the mean temperature of the year is now very low,[231] the
winter exceedingly cold (-63.3 deg. has been registered) and the
short summer exceedingly warm. Nowhere on earth does the temperature
show extremes so widely separated as here. Although the trees in
winter often split with tremendous noise, and the ground is rent
with the cold, the wood is luxuriant and extends to the
neighbourhood of the Polar Sea, where besides, the winter is much
milder than farther in the interior. With respect to the possibility
of these large animals finding sufficient pasture in the regions in
question, it ought not to be overlooked that in sheltered places
overflowed by the spring inundations there are found, still far
north of the limit of trees, luxuriant bushy thickets, whose
newly-expanded juicy leave