The voyage of the Vega round Asia and Europe; with a historical review of previous journeys along the north coast of the Old World . mammoth and thewalrus are clearly mixed up together, which is not so wonderful,as both are found on the coast of the Polar Sea, and both yieldedivory to the stocks of the Siberian merchants. In the sameway all the statements which the French Jesuit, AvRiL, duringhis stay in Moscow in 1686, collected regarding the amphibiousanimal. Behemoth, occurring on the coast of the Tartarian Sea,(Polar Sea) refer not to the mammoth, as some writers,HowoRTH^ for example, have
The voyage of the Vega round Asia and Europe; with a historical review of previous journeys along the north coast of the Old World . mammoth and thewalrus are clearly mixed up together, which is not so wonderful,as both are found on the coast of the Polar Sea, and both yieldedivory to the stocks of the Siberian merchants. In the sameway all the statements which the French Jesuit, AvRiL, duringhis stay in Moscow in 1686, collected regarding the amphibiousanimal. Behemoth, occurring on the coast of the Tartarian Sea,(Polar Sea) refer not to the mammoth, as some writers,HowoRTH^ for example, have supposed, but to the name mammoth, which is probably of Tartar origin, Witsenappears to wish to derive from Behemoth, spoken of in thefortieth chapter of the Book of Job. The first mammoth tuskwas brought to England in 1611, by JosiAS Logan. It waspurchased in the region of the Petchora, and attracted great ^ Compare Ph. Avril, Voyage en divers etafs dEurope et d^Asie entreprispour decouvrir un noureau chemin a la Chine, etc., Paris, 1692, p. H. Howorth, The Mammoth in Siberia {Geolog. Mag. 1880,p. 408).. z ^ ;= A. .^ ^E ^ <J 304 THE VOYAGE OE THE VEGA. [chap. attention, as appears from Logans remark in a letter to Hak-luyt, that one would not have dreamed to find such wares in theregion of the Petchora (Purchas, iii. p. 546). As Englishmenat that time visited Moscow frequently, and for long periods,this remark appears to indicate that fossil ivory first becameknown in the capital of Russia some time after the conquest ofSiberia. I have not, indeed, been successful during the voyage of theVega in making any remarkable discovery that would throwlight on the mode of life of the mammoth,^ but as we now sail
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, bookidvoyageofvega, bookyear1882
