Along the greater and lesser Aniuj Rivers, Siberia
(Lesser Aniuj)
The banks of the river thus far resembled those of the
lowerKolyma in there deary uniformity, but we now began to meet with better
pastures. The right bank is much higher than the left. It consists of steep
sandhills 30 or more fathoms high, held together only by frosts which the
summer is too short to dissolve. Most of the hills were frozen as hard
as rock: nothing thaws but a thin outside layer, though, from being gradually
undermined by the water, large masses of frozen sand frequently break off
and fall into the stream, When this happens, mammoth bones in more or less
perfect state of preservation are generally found: we saw a few bones,
and a scull, which looked to me like that of a rhinoceros.
Source: Wrangall, Admiral Ferdinand, Russian Imperial Navy,
Narrative
of an Expedition to the Polar Sea, New York, Harper and Brothers publishers,
1873, p172-173
- 1875 -
The remains of of a Rhinoceros, very similar to the Indian
species, are likewise found in great numbers along the shores, or on the
steep and sandy river-banks of Northern Siberia, along with those of fossil
species of the horse, the muskox, and the bison, which have now totally
forsaken the Arctic wilds.
source:
Hartwig, Dr. G., The Polar and Tropical Worlds, A Description
of Man and Nature, in the Polar and Equatorial Regions of the Globe,
C. A. Nichols & Co. Springfield Mass., 1875, p.202-203
- 1877 -
A new and important find
was made in 1877 on a tributary of the Lena
(Siberia)...in 69 degrees north latitude. For there was found there
an exceedingly well-preserved carcass of a rhinoceros. ...From the find
Schrenck draws the conclusion that this rhinoceros belonged to a high-northern
secies, adapted to a cold climate, and living in, or at least occasionally
wandering to, the regions where the carcass was found. There the mean temerature
of the year is very low, the winter exceedingly cold... and the short summer
exceedingly warm. - Nordenskiold.
source: Stefansson, Vilhjalmur. Great Adventures and Explorations,
New york, The Dial Press, 1952, p.452
- 1880 -
In 1772, Pallas discovered at Wiljuiskoi, in Lat. 64 deg.
N., on the banks of the river Wiljui, as affluent of the Lena, the body
of a rhinoceros which had remained for centuries in a state of congelation,
and might be compared to a natural mummy.
source: Adams,W. H.Davenport,
Wonders
of the Modern World, Glacier, Iceberg, Icefield, and Avalanche,
London, T. Nelson and Sons Paternoster Row. 1880, p301
- 1929
-
Discovery of Body of Prehistoric Rhinoceros Warsaw, Poland,
Nov. 11 (AP)
The body of a prehistoric wooly rhinoceros, the second
to be found in Poland, has been unearthed in the village of Starunia. The body was intact and excellently preserved. It
will be disected by naturalists. About 30 years ago the body of a wooly rhinoceros
was found in the same village, but it was not so well preserved as this
one.
source: Bee_ (Danville, Virginia) dated November 11, 1929