Mammoth Still in the Land of the Living?

One of the most often cited eyewitness reports of living mammoths in Siberia began making its rounds in 1873. The journal Zoologist recounted an incredible tale in an article titled “The Mammoth Still in the Land of the Living.” The following is the article in it's entirety:

The Mammoth Still in the Land of the Living

The ‘New York World’ describes an interview between one of its correspondents and Cheriton Batchmatchnik, a Russian convict, lately pardoned by the Government in consideration of his wonderful discoveries in Siberia, to which territory he had been banished for smuggling. Cheriton had escaped from the mines of Nartchinsk, and having reached the mountains struck southward for the Amoor River, intending to get to China. Meeting Cossacks, he again turned north, and essayed what seemed to be a pass in the great Altai range. For thirty days he scrambled about seeking in vain for an outlet. At length he got out to the north, together with one of the branches of the Lena river. He then turned eastward, and was entering the gorges of the Aldan mountains when winter overtook him. Across the snow, however, came vast troops of animals, all going the same way. Cheriton followed them, arrived at the summit of the range, and there, far below his feet, landlocked between great ranges of hills on all sides, lay a valley fifty miles wide by one hundred and fifty long, and centered by a blue lake. He descended and found the valley warm and fertile, and full of animals. At night he made a fire and lay down beside it to sleep. During the night—"Dark shadowy forms came over the water, splashing towards him, and seemed to seek what his fire might mean. The trampling of great beasts, that crushed the willow-stalks like pipestems, on their way to the water’s edge, and that came and stood over him, breathing heavily and slow as they seemed to gaze at the fire with stupid wonder, made him afraid each moment of being overrun. Wild eyes, reflecting the fire-light, shone around him out of the gloom upon all sides, and wilder cries and howls gave new horrors to his position. He sprang to his feet almost paralysed with fright, and fired off his pistol at the nearest intruder. The echo of the shot rang long around him, and it seemed the signal for the cries of a thousand new monsters to burst forth. There were mad, plunging rushes of frightened beasts around him that made the ground tremble; a peculiar long, shrill, quavering shriek sounded over the lake, and was answered by a harsh, full-guttural bellow near at hand. When Cheriton awoke it was broad day, and there were no traces of the animals that had disturbed him over night, except the paths they had worn going down to the water. In these paths he saw the deep-planted spoor of some animal larger than anything of the sort he had ever before beheld. His first care was to seek some place to pass the next night, where he could be free from the alarms that had made the past night so terrible. He recrossed the meadow, and followed the edge of the slope around in the direction in which he saw some rocks. Among them 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, then another, he heard a heavy startling snort, and there in the half light of the cave, standing full 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 habitat of these animals, and that some of the best scientific judges are uncertain whether to look upon the remains found on the shores of the Arctic Ocean as fossil animals or as the remnants of wandering herds caught and perishing in storms, individuals of which may still exist under favourable circumstances. Without 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 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 of a mouse-colour, and seemed very thick. The animal was nocturnal in its habits, frequenting caves or forest depths by day, and feeding at night and early morning. Cheriton thinks there might be some fifteen or twenty of these monsters in the valley altogether, but that all these are aged, and that very few are born now-a-days. At any rate, he saw none that had the least appearance of being young. They were very peaceable animals, torpid and sluggish as old oxen, never disturbing Cheriton, nor indeed taking much notice of him. The lake was inhabited by a monster of which Cheriton was in constant dread, a sort of saurophidian, which he described as being thirty feet long, and armed with scales and horrible fangs. This monster—he never saw but the one—was master of the lake, and lived by devouring the animals which came by night to its brink to drink. Cheriton gives a graphic and exciting description of a contest which he witnessed one morning at early dawn between this crocodile-serpent and one of the mastodons. The battle, which lasted more than an hour, ended in the “discomfiture of the mammoth, which could barely limp away after having been constricted in the serpent’s folds.”

Although fully aware of the advantages of what the late Thomas Moore called a “heliacal rising,” I postponed the publication of this extraordinary narrative for a month for two reasons: first, because my notice of Mr. Moggridge’s volume had already been deferred for an unreasonable time; and secondly, because I thought it possible some counter-statement about the mammoths might appear, showing that the narrative itself was one of those sux d’esprits for which our transatlantic brethren are so deservedly celebrated. A month, however, has elapsed, and not only have we received no official contradiction, but the statement has been thought worthy of reproduction by Professor Feuchtwanger, before the “American Association for the Advancement of Science.” The learned Professor says:—“The discovery of the mammoths in Siberia in the deep gorges of the mountains near the Lena Viner, which was lately published as having been made by a scientific Russian convict, who had seen five living animals, twelve feet in height and eighteen feet in length, with projecting tusks four feet long, excites some discussion in Europe. I think it worthy of inquiry whether the mammoth of the post-tertiary period, discovered during this century in Siberia, near the same river, can have any relation to the convict’s discovery. Thousands of these animals have been found buried in the ice, with their well-preserved skins, and thousands of tusks are brought to England to this day for the use of the turner. These are of nearly the same dimensions as those seen by the Russian. The convict has received an unconditional pardon, on the recommendation of scientific men who have investigated his statements and believe them to be true.” I must confess to feeling some hesitation in receiving as true Zoology such an astounding statement; there are also certain of the details, particularly that relating to chewing the cud, which could scarcely emanate from a “scientific” observer, and so the learned Professor calls him. I would avail myself of this opportunity for inviting attention to a paper of my own on the Siberian mammoth, published at page 1 of the ‘Zoologist,’ under date of January 1843. From this it appears that M. Klaproth published a note on the same subject in the ‘Memoirs of the Academy of St. Petersburgh’ in the early part of the present century (see vol. v. p. 409). In this there is abundant evidence of the head, tusks, legs, and even entire bodies of mammals having been repeatedly found, at the beginning of the present century, in so recent a state that bears and dogs fed on the flesh: portions of skin and hairs are preserved in the Museum of the London College of Surgeons. The extract from the ‘New York World’ is reprinted from the ‘Standard’ newspaper.

The story of "The Mammoth Still in the Land of the Living" appears in my book Modern-Day Mammoths along with a host of other fascinating accounts.

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