The Journey To A Mammoth
The Beresovka Mammoth
An expedition which set out from St. Petersburg in 1901 led by Dr. Otto Herz and Eugen Pfizenmayer, zoologists from the Russion Imperial Academy of Sciences, was responsible for the most thoroughly documented recovery of a frozen mammoth. The previous year the governor of Yakutsk had reported the discovery of a mammoth in an almost perfect state of preservation, frozen in a cliff along the Beresovka River, a tributary of the Kolyma, 745 miles (1,200 km) west of the Bering Strait and 62 miles (100 km) inside the Arctic Circle. A Lamut deer hunter had first spotted a huge mammoth tusk wieghing about 175 lb (80 kg) and then, below it, the head of a second mammoth protruding from the ground, with one smaller tusk of about 65 lb (30 kg).
The hunter sold the two tusks in Kolyma, but did nothing else to the carcass on account of Lamut superstition about such mammoth finds. The buyer reported the find, and the Russian finance minister assigned 16,300 roubles for an expedition to examine and secure the specimen. It reached the mammoth after a four-month journey. Pfizenmayer gave a graphic description of their first impressions: "Some time before the mammoth body came in view I smelled its anything but pleasant odor - like the smell of a badly kept stable heavily blended with that of offal. Then, around a bend in the path, a towering skull appeared, and we stood at the grave of the diluvial monster...We stood speechless in front of this evidence of the prehistoric world, which had been preserved almost intact in its grave of ice throughout the ages."
The mammoth was later identified as a male, aged about 35 to 40, and about 29,000 to 33,000 years old. Herz and Pfizenmayer believed it had died in this position, on the spot, having probably broken through a thin layer of earth into an ice fissure. Falls of earth had buried and suffocated it. Death by asphyxiation was indicated by the erect penis, which was 34 in (86 cm) long and 7 in (18 cm) in diameter. the animal still had food in its mouth, confirming its rapid demise. The pelvis, right shoulder blade and several ribs were broken, suggesting to herz that it had fallen with great violence into a crevasse. Later investigators came to the conclusion that the mammoth had not died in situ, however, but had moved within a landslide which had resulted from the thawing of ice under the tundra. This might account for the broken bones. The death of the Beresovka mammoth probably occurred in the fall, when the surface soil was still mobile after the summer thaw but temperatures were dropping, allowing rapid freezing of the buried mammoth.
The carcass had to be cut into pieces because it could not be thawed intact from the frozen ground, nor could its great bulk have been transported whole to St. Petersburg. The job of recovering the carcass was made particularly unpleasant by the stench. However, it appealed greatly to animals - in fact, the mammoth had been discovered because the Lamut hunter's dog had been enticed by the smell.
The Journey
On May 3 the Herz-Pfizenmayer Expedition left St. Petersburg. It was to cross more than a third of the Earth's circumference, without leaving the Tsar's empire. The first stage was the easiest, traveling by train to Irkutsk, which was reached on May 14. From Irkutsk, the party proceeded by carts and boats to Yakutsk, which was reached on June 14. The next 2,000 miles (3,200 km) was accomplished on foot and on horseback. At Srednaia Kolymsk, the expedition had to stock up with provisions: not only food but also tools to break frozen ground, mosquito nets, gloves and a collapsible boat which could also serve as a tent. A guide and interpreter were also hired. The party finally reached the Beresovka Mammoth on September 9, after a journey of four months.
Dr. Otto Herz and Eugen Pfizenmayer removed about 287 lb (130 kg) of flesh from around the mammoth's hindquarters; this was wrapped in cow and horse hides and allowed to freeze again in the open to preserve it. Skin was cut from the abdomen - 507 lb (230 kg) of it - as well as from the head, which included the cheeks, right eyelid and lips.
Most of the internal organs had rotted away before freezing could preserve them. The stomach was badly decayed and torn, but 26 lb (12 kg) of food fragments were recovered, confirming that the animal did not die of hunger.
The dissection of the Beresovka mammoth was completed by October 11, and the remains were packed into 27 cases and placed on 10 sleighs, drawn by reindeer. During the long, arduous journey back to Yakutsk, the temperature sometimes descended to -54F (-48C); sleighs disintergrated on the unsurfaced roads, and reindeer broke legs on hidden tree stumps. For the 1,865-mile (3,000-km) journey from Yakutsk to Irkutsk, horses were used. The party finally reached St. Petersburg on February 18 - after just under 10 months of travel by rail and boat, 4,000 miles (6,400 km) by sleigh and 2,000 miles (3,200 km) on horseback, and six weeks of excavation in the harshest conditions.
The mammoth's body was reassembled in St. Petersburg, Tsar Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra visited the still-reeking specimen: the Tsar listened to the explanations with interest, while his wife stood with her handkerchief pressed to her nose.
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