THE GALLIPOLIS JOURNAL — NOVEMBER 27, 1873
Anybody tired of fox-hunting might, according to a Russian, Cheriton, find some sport in Siberia. In his accounts of his exploits he says that one day he found the wide and lofty entrance to a cave. He entered with some precautions, for the rocky pavement was worn as if by use, and within he heard a slow measured movement, as of an animal gently ruminating, and heavily breathing, with great, calm inspirations and expirations, like the sigh of a smith’s bellows. One turn, and then another, he heard a heavy, startling snort, and there, in the half light of the cave, standing still before him, alive, chewing the cud, and waving its proboscis to and fro with a slow, gentle, majestic motion, he saw—a mammoth!
“I did not know then,” said Cheriton, “what I have since been told, that Siberia was an old habitation of these animals, and that some of the best scientific judges are uncertain whether to look upon the remains found upon the shores of the Arctic Ocean as fossil animals, or as the remnant of wandering herds caught and perished in storms, individuals of which may still exist under favorable circumstances. With out intending it, I have solved that doubt.”
Cheriton describes the mammoth as being a very imposing looking animal, covered with reddish brown wool and long black hair. During his stay in the valley he was close to five of them, all of which were nearly of a size, being about twelve feet high, eighteen feet long, with tusks projecting about four feet, and being about eight to ten feet counting the curve. The skin, which was bare on the upper surface of the ears, on the knees and rump, was a mouse color, and seemed very thick. The animal was nocturnal in its habits, frequenting eaves of forest depths by day, and feeding at night or early morning. Chariton thinks there might he some fifteen or twenty of these monsters together.
From— Gallipolis Journal. (Gallipolis, Ohio), 27 Nov. 1873., Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.
