Where the leaves
have fallen singly on a clayey soil favorable for receiving such
impressions, they have daguerreotyped themselves with the most wonderful
accuracy, and the Oaks, Poplars, Willows, Maples, Walnuts, Gum- and
Cinnamon-trees, etc., of the Tertiaries are as well known to us as are
those of our own time.
It was an eventful day, not only for science, but for the world, when a
Siberian fisherman chanced to observe a singular mound lying near the
mouth of the River Lena, where it empties into the Arctic Ocean. During
the warmer summer-weather, he noticed, that, as the snow gradually
melted, this mound assumed a more distinct and prominent outline, and at
length, on one side of it, where the heat of the sun was greatest, a
dark body became exposed, which, when completely uncovered, proved to be
that of an immense elephant, in so perfect a state of preservation that
the dogs and wolves were attracted to it as by the smell of fresh meat,
and came to feed upon it at night.
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