certain Organic Remains in the Diluvium of the Arctic Circle. 4-15 



bouchure of Buckland River, at the head of Eschscholtz Bay, 

 in both which spots, however, the smell was perceived*, yet we 

 shall not be justified in assuming, from the former circum- 

 stance, that no animal remains are contained in the diluvium 

 at these points, resembling as it does, in all other characters, 

 that of the other localities. It is far more likely that future de- 

 gradation of the cliffs will expose them. In such situations 

 many bones may exist undiscovered ; the probability of which 

 is confirmed by the history of Elephant Point. Nearly all the 

 bones obtained both by the Russian and the English Expedi- 

 tion were collected here ; but Mr. Collie states that at his first 

 visit to the spot, in July 1826, he " saw no traces of fossils." 

 Now, had Elephant Point not been visited a second time, we 

 might have reasoned on the supposed absence of fossils in that 

 locality, in the manner Dr. Buckland has actually done respect- 

 ing the cliff in Shallow Inlet. And even supposing that no fossils 

 should at present exist at the last-mentioned place, the mud 

 may contain animal matter derived from them as formerly ex- 

 isting, and now itself suffering decomposition, and resolution 

 into gaseous substances. 



I have been thus particular in endeavouring to show how 

 this odour might naturally have been produced from the ani- 

 mal matter of the bones, or of the soft parts in which they were 

 once enveloped, and in combating Dr. Buckland's opinion 

 of its having a different origin, unconnected with the organic 

 remains in this diluvium, because, the fact that such an odour 

 should exist in the places where those remains have been dis- 

 covered, appears to me to furnish an important confirmation 

 of one of the conclusions which have been deduced by Dr. 

 Buckland, from the entire history of the organic remains in 

 the diluvium of the Arctic Circle. 



The conclusion to which I allude, is that of the sudden 

 change of climate of that region, from warmth, to intense cold. 

 For, that such an odour as the one described, should arise 

 from the organic remains in the diluvium of the Arctic Circle, 

 tends strongly to confirm the deduction of the suddenness of 

 the transition from heat to cold, by which the catastrophe de- 

 stroying the animals, and producing that diluvium, was accom- 



* The latter of these spots, though described as one of those in which 

 the smell was perceived, by Capt. Beechey, is not mentioned by Dr. Buck- 

 land. The circumstances under which the odour occurs here, appear to 

 corroborate the inference that it arises, in all cases, from animal remains 

 originally imbedded in the substance of the diluvium; for, speaking of the 

 cliff itself, which is stated to have been similar in appearance to that at 

 Elephant Point, from which the fossils were afterwards obtained, Captain 

 Beechey remarks, that " the earth, in parts, had a disagreeable smell, similar 

 to that which was supposed to proceed from the decayed animal substances 

 in the cliff near Elephant Point." (Narrative, p. 322.) 



panied. 



