212 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE. 



they remain standing" half submerged 

 for a long time. Frequently there hangs 

 down from the top of these undermined 

 banks a mantle of moss which serves as 

 a curtain to hide the destruction the 

 waters have wrought." 



The party struggled up the Nowitna 

 river for nine days, hunting for the 

 source of all the pieces of ancient bones 

 found washed down from somewhere 

 above. No settlers were met with, and 

 only an occasional deserted winter cabin 

 of a lonely trapper showed that man had 

 ever scrambled along the banks or pushed 

 a paddle in the stream. Food began to 

 give out. so that they were forced to turn 

 back before reaching the headwaters. 

 The side trip, however, was not without 

 results, for from nearly every bar 

 searched was taken a fragment or a com- 

 plete element of a skeleton representing 

 such extinct forms as the mammoth, 

 bison and horse. 



It was found that the scattered re- 

 mains of the very early animals occur 

 throughout the heart of Alaska not con- 

 stantly covered by ice and snow, in 

 three quite distinct deposits : First, in 

 the black muck accumulated in the 

 gulches and valleys of the smaller 

 streams ; second in the fine elevated clays 

 of early origin, known as the Yukon silts 

 and Kowak clays ; and third in the more 

 recent deposits along the banks of 



streams. These specimens have been 

 either washed out by the process of 

 erosion or else dug out by miners in 

 search of gold. 



In connection with the "bone yard" 

 of the Palisades, and with Elephant Point 

 farther north, it has been thought that 

 there might be enough ivory in old im- 

 bedded mammoth tusks to pay for its 

 excavation and shipping for commercial 

 purposes, as is the case in some localities 

 of Siberia. In fact mammoth tusks for a 

 good many years have been an important 

 Siberian export. But the Alaskan re- 

 mains are not in as fresh a state of pre- 

 servation, and until a few years ago, it 

 is said, a man would not take a tusk as 

 a eift. Now thev are used to manufac- 

 ture curios of different sorts. 



How the ancient animals died, has 

 been a subject of speculation. Some 

 have believed that they met their end on 

 the shores of glacial lakes, and their 

 bones, carried out on the ice in the spring- 

 break-up, were dropped here and there 

 as the ice melted, becoming imbedded 

 in the silt. Mr. Gilmore, however, be- 

 lieves, since the best specimens have been 

 found in gulches and valleys of small 

 streams, and are more common in muck 

 than in silt, that these animals became 

 mired in prehistoric bogs, not then froz- 

 en, and were afterwards separated by the 

 "flowing" or "creeping" of the muck. 



> 



fORRESPONDENCE 



^ ^^ and Information 



r 



SUNSET OX LAKE HURON. 



Pittsfield, Massachusetts. 

 To the Editor: 



The photograph, "Sunset on Lake Hu- 

 ron," in the August The Guide to Na- 

 ture recalls the outing we once took at 

 Goderich, Ontario. In the following 

 sonnet Mrs. Ballard tells what happened 

 as she and our fonr-or-five-years-old lit- 

 tle Julia stood on the high bluff watching 

 the sunset. 



Very truly yours, 



Addison Ballard. 



I Iuron's blue waters oped their trem- 

 bling lips, 

 And swallowed up the round, red 



evening sun. 

 "Think he will rise again, my little 



( me . 

 1 asked, as, gazing 'twixt two wandering 



ships 

 Where he had disappeared in strange 



eclipse. 

 My little girl stood silent as a nun. 

 The moment's fear gave place; sweet 



faith was born ; 



