Part 9 (2/2)
”Dec. 24, 1904.
”Dear Sir,--Before leaving St. Petersburg, Mrs. Gough-Calthorpe, wife of our late naval attache, asked me to send you some information about the stuffed mammoth which is in the Zoological Museum here, as you were interested in such things, and I promised to translate the pa.s.sage in the catalogue which refers to the animal.
”The revolution which has been raging here for the last few months has given me so much to do I really have not had time to keep my promise sooner. However, I now send you the translation, which, I fear, tells disappointingly little about the mammoth, giving no measurements nor any description of his appearance. The earlier part, too, about the distribution of the elephant family, is doubtless also stale news to you.
”You have, I believe, already received a photograph of him from Mrs.
Calthorpe, so you know what he looks like, but as I have seen him very often, I may add a few details as to his personal appearance from my own observation. He is smaller than I expected--a good deal smaller than an elephant, but then, it is true, he was young when he died, not full grown, I suppose. His tusks are magnificent. His hair is very thick, abundant and long and of a fas.h.i.+onable dark reddish-brown tint. Otherwise he is very like an elephant in general build, and I should say, so far as I can judge without being a specialist, in details also.
”I hope these few details may be of use to you. Should you want more about the mammoth, or require information about anything else in the museum here, I shall be very glad to do my best to satisfy you.
”The Calthorpes are much regretted by all of us here, as they were greatly beloved by us. Curiously enough, the wife of Calthorpe's successor, Captain Victor Stanley, also comes from British Columbia.
”Yours very truly,
”H. Norman.
”Secretary to His Majesty's Emba.s.sy.
”I send this by King's messenger as far as London, which will still further delay it, but the posts are now very irregular and unsafe in Russia owing to the revolutionary strikes. H. N.”
Translation from Catalogue.
”During the tertiary period elephants were very numerous and were distributed over Europe, Asia as far as the Arctic Ocean, North America and Africa. By the remains excavated, many species of extinct elephants are now distinguished, among which one, known under the name of Mammoth (_Elephas Primigenius_), existed in immense numbers in Europe and in Siberia as far as its most northern limits.
In Siberia the frozen bodies of these animals have frequently been found well preserved, with the skin and flesh. On account of the remoteness of the places where these bodies have been found, not all the expeditions sent to exhume them have had a successful issue.
In this connection the most successful of all was that organized by the Academy of Sciences in 1901 to the River Berezovka, in the Yakutsk district, which consisted of Messrs. O. F. Herz and E. W. Pfitzenmayer.
Thanks to this expedition an excellent specimen of the mammoth was received by the Academy of Sciences,--rather young, with skin, parts of the internal organs, some food and almost the whole skeleton.
Unfortunately some of the soft parts of the body, such as the trunk, were not found. The remains of this mammoth made it possible not only to set up the skeleton, but to stuff the animal, which is placed in the position in which it died, suddenly, in all probability, and in which it was found in a frozen condition.”
This story can hardly be called a ”reminiscence” of Victoria, but I thought that it might be interesting to many who, like myself, have a liking for old and ancient things, as this mammoth most a.s.suredly was. Also there may be an interest taken in the letter from Mr.
Norman, the secretary to H.M. Emba.s.sy, speaking as it does of one who formerly was a resident and native-born of British Columbia.--E. F.
CHAPTER XI.
MRS. EDWIN DONALD, HON. WYMOND HAMLEY, HON. G. A. WALKEM.
Mrs. Edwin Donald.
”I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.”--Timothy 4:7, 8. Never was there one to whom these words could be applied with greater truth than to the subject of this sketch. A faithful servant of her Lord, she was always ready to say a good word for Him, and took advantage of any and all opportunities to bring back to Him some friend whom she thought had become careless, thoughtless, or indifferent in His service.
I am sure my old friend admonished me many a time during our forty-six years of close friends.h.i.+p, but always in the most kindly manner, that could not help impressing me, knowing it was well meant, and knowing also that she considered it her duty to say what she did.
It was in February, 1859, as a boy of twelve, just arrived from San Francisco, that I first met her. She and her husband had lately arrived from Wisconsin, U.S., where they had been living some years, and, having a sister here already, she had been induced to come to her. Her sister, herself and their husbands had all come from Cornwall. The elder sister and her husband (Trounce) had emigrated to Van Diemen's Land, as Tasmania was then called; the Trounces later on went to San Francisco, and from there came to Victoria, in the same steamer as my father, in 1858.
The Trounces and Donalds lived in tents on Douglas Street in 1858, and when our family arrived in 1859 they had just moved into what was then considered a very handsome house. It now stands on Kane Street, between Douglas and Blanchard.
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