y of the Lena. In the museum at St.
Petersburg there is a head of the Arctic rhinoceros on which the skin
and tendons remain, and a foot of the same animal displays a portion
of its hair. The claws of an enormous bird are also found in the
north, some of them three feet long, and jointed through their whole
length like the claws of an ostrich.

Captain Wrangell and other explorers say the mammoth bones are smaller
on the Arctic islands than on the main land, but are wonderfully
increased in quantity. For many years the natives and fur traders have
brought away large cargoes, but the supply is not yet exhausted. The
teeth and tusks on the islands are more fresh and white than those of
the Continent. On the Lachoff Islands the principal deposit was on a
low sand bank, and the natives declared that when the waves receded
after an easterly wind, a fresh supply was always found. One island
about latitude 80 deg. was said to be largely composed of mammoth bones. I
presume this statement should be received with a little caution.
During the doctor's expedition the supply of provisions was not
always abundant, but there was no absolute scarcity. The party lived
for some time on fish, and on the flesh of the reindeer. A story was
told that the explorers were reduced to subsisting on the mammoth they
discovered, and hence their failure to bring away portions of the
flesh. Mammoth cutlets and soup were occasionally proposed for the
entertainment of the _savants_ on their return to Irkutsk.

One of my acquaintances had a narrow escape from death on the ice
during an expedition toward Kotelnoi Island, and the chain lying to
the east of it, generally known as New Siberia. It was early in the
spring--somewhat later than the time of the ordinary winter
journeys--that he set out from the mouth of the Lena, hoping to reach
Kotelnoi Island, and return before the weather became warm. He had
four dog teams, and was accompanied by a Russian servant and two Yakut
natives, whom he engaged for a voyage down the Lena, and the
expedition across the ice. It was known that a quantity of ivory had
been gathered on the island, and was waiting for transportation to the
Lena; to get this ivory was the object of the journey. I will tell the
story in the words of the narrator, or as nearly as I can do so from
recollection.

"We reached the island without serious trouble; the weather was clear
and cold, and the traveling quite as good as we expected. Wh