It was in Siberia that the fossil Elephant received the name of the _Mammoth_, and its tusks that of _mammoth horns_. The celebrated Russian savant, Pallas, who gave the first systematic description of the Mammoth, asserts that the name is derived from the word _mama_, which in the Tartar idiom signifies the _earth_. According to others, the name is derived from _behemoth_, mentioned in the Book of Job; or from the epithet _mahemoth_, which the Arabs add to the word “elephant,” to designate one of unusual size. A curious circumstance enough is, that this same legend of an animal living exclusively under ground, exists amongst the Chinese. They call it _tien-schu_, and we read, in the great Chinese work on natural history, which was written in the sixteenth century: “The animal named _tien-schu_, of which we have already spoken in the ancient work upon the ceremonial entitled “Lyki” (a work of the fifth century before Jesus Christ), is called also _tyn-schu_ or _yn-schu_, that is to say, _the mouse which hides itself_. It always lives in subterranean caverns; it resembles a mouse, but is of the size of a buffalo or ox. It has no tail; its colour is dark; it is very strong, and excavates caverns in places full of rocks, and forests.” Another writer, quoting the same passage, thus expresses himself: “The _tyn-schu_ haunts obscure and unfrequented places. It dies as soon as it is exposed to the rays of the sun or moon; its feet are short in proportion to its size, which causes it to walk badly. Its tail is a Chinese ell in length. Its eyes are small, and its neck short. It is very stupid and sluggish. When the inundations of the river _Tamschuann-tuy_ took place (in 1571), a great many tyn-schu appeared in the plain; it fed on the roots of the plant _fu-kia_.”