FORMER CLIMATE OF ALASKA 
81 
the theory of the existence of enormous ice-sheets in dis¬ 
tricts adjoining Alaska during Pleistocene times. All the 
writers agree that the numerous mammals whose remains were 
discovered in Alaska lived there in the Ice Age during climatic 
conditions which were vastly more favourable than those now 
prevailing. Evidences of a milder climate are furnished by 
the abundance of mammoth remains in Alaska. Horses, rein¬ 
deer and herds of bisons likewise roamed all over the country. 
Hence rich meadows and forests must have been plentiful 
to support them all with food. Nothing whatsoever has been 
brought to light which would sustain the theory expressed 
by some writers that this fauna inhabited Alaska during a 
mild post-Glacial or inter-Glacial stage. No trace of the exist¬ 
ence in Alaska of a cold period preceding the supposed inter- 
Glacial or post-Glacial stage has been found. We must con¬ 
clude, therefore, that Alaska and the neighbouring countries 
during the whole of the Pleistocene Period had a temperate 
climate. 
These heterodox views on the climate during the so- 
called Ice Age are not new. They were enunciated by 
Sir Henry Howorth and supported by able arguments 
more than twenty years ago. Very little was then known 
of Alaska, but the remains of innumerable large mammals 
had been unearthed in northern Siberia and even on the New 
Siberian Islands situated in the Arctic Ocean. These dis¬ 
closures naturally caused a good deal of speculation. They 
led to the conclusion that the cold of the Ice Age or Glacial 
Epoch was succeeded by a warm or temperate climate during 
which these animals were tempted to wander into the Arctic 
Regions. After carefully examining the problem, however, 
Sir Henry Howorth * expressed the conviction that this mild 
or temperate epoch did not follow the Ice Age, but pre¬ 
vailed during the whole of it. The creatures alluded to must, 
therefore, have lived in those northern regions during the 
Pleistocene Period, which was temperate in character. Since 
the close of that period Siberia has gradually become more 
and more inhospitable. 
A few years later the extremely valuable scientific results of 
* Howorth, H. H., “ Mammoth and the Flood,” p. 265. 
G 
L.A. 
