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- 106 REMINISCENCES OF OLD VICTORIA
mass of clear ice. It was uncovered and rotted away in 1804."
MR. NORMAN'S LETTER.
The following is a copy of Mr. Norman's letter :
" British Embassy, St. Petersburg,
" Dec. 24, 1904.
" Dear Sir,?Before leaving St. Petersburg, Mrs. Gough-Calthorpe, wife of our late naval attach?, asked me to send you some information about the stuffed mammoth which is in the Zoological Museum here, as you were interested in such things, and I promised to translate the passage in the catalogue which refers to the animal.
" The revolution which has been raging here for the last few months has given me so much to do I really have not had time to keep my promise sooner. How-ever, I now send you the translation, which; I fear, tells disappointingly little about the mammoth, giving no measurements nor any description of his appearance. The earlier part, too, about the distribution of the elephant family, is doubtless also stale news to you.
" You have, I believe, already received a photograph of him from Mrs. Calthorpe, so you know what he looks like, but as I have seen him very often, I may add a few details as to his personal appearance from my own observation. He is smaller than I expected?a good deal smaller than an elephant, but then, it is true, he was young when he died, not full grown, I suppose. His tusks are magnificent. His hair is very thick, abundant and long and of a fashionable dark reddish-brown tint. Otherwise he is very like an elephant in
A SIBERIAN MAMMOTH 107
general build, and I should say, so far as I can judge without being a specialist, in details also.
" I hope these few details may be of use to you. Should you want more about the mammoth, or require information about anything else in the museum here, I shall be very glad to do my best to satisfy you.
" The Calthorpes are much regretted by all of us here, as they were greatly beloved by us. Curiously enough, the wife of Calthorpe's successor, Captain Victor Stanley, also comes from British Columbia.
" Yours very truly,
" H. NORMAN.
" Secretary to His Majesty's Embassy.
" I send this by King's messenger as far as London, which will still further delay it, but the posts are now very irregular and unsafe in Russia owing to the revolutionary strikes. H. N."
TRANSLATION FROM CATALOGUE.
" During the tertiary period elephants were very numerous and were distributed over Europe, Asia as far as the Arctic Ocean, North America and Africa. By the remains excavated, many species of extinct elephants are now distinguished, among which one, known under the name of Mammoth (Elephas Primigenius), existed in immense numbers in Europe and in Siberia as far as its most northern limits. In Siberia the frozen bodies of these animals have frequently been found well preserved, with the skin and flesh. On account of the remoteness of the places where these bodies have been found, not all the expeditions sent to
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