Discovery of a frozen mammoth in Siberia. A local chief spotted the creature, encased in transparent ice, on the banks of the river Lena in 1799. It took 5 years to thaw out, when it was set upon by native inhabitants, the tusks being sold off and the hide feasted upon by dogs and wolves. A naturalist, Michael Adams, came to hear to the mammoth, gathered up its remainders, repurchased the tusks and carried the whole thing to St. Petersburg(a distance of 7,730 miles), where it was displayed in a museum. The creature became known as the Adams mammoth, after Michael Adams who recovered it.