FOSSIL REMAINS. 345 



much in hones. At Icy Cape the chffs of mud hehind the 

 islands were about twenty feet high, but were not examined. 

 Patches of pure ice were observed lianging on the mud cHfFs 

 in many places along this coast, but only where there was peat 

 at the top ; hence it may be inferred, that the ice, in such 

 cases, is formed by water oozing from the peat. At High 

 Cape, near Hotham Inlet, is a cliff of mud, a hundred feet 

 high, covered at the top with peat, and having patches of ice 

 upon its surface ; but no bones were found hei'e. In those 

 parts of ihe coast where the cliffs are rocky there were no 

 facings of ice. 



Having thus far stated the evidence we possess respecting 

 the facts connected with the discovery of these bones in 

 Eschscholtz Bay, I will proceed to offer a few remarks in 

 illustration and explanation of them, and to consider how far 

 they tend to throw light on the curious and perplexing ques- 

 tion, as to what was the climate of this portion of the world 

 at the time when it was inhabited by animals now so foreign to 

 it as the elephant and rhinoceros, and as to the manner in 

 which, not only their teeth and tusks and dislocated portions 

 of their skeletons, but, in some remarkable instances, the en- 

 tire carcasses of these beasts, with their flesh and skin still 

 perfect, became entombed in ice, or in frozen mud and gravel, 

 over such extensive and distant regions of the northern hemi- 

 sphere. 



The bones from Eschscholtz Bay, like most of those we find 

 in diluvial deposits, are no way mineralized : they are much 

 altered in colour, being almost black, and are to a certain de- 

 gree decomposed and weakened; yet they retain so much 

 animal matter, that not only a strong odour like that of burnt 

 horn is emitted from them on the application of heated iron, 

 but a musty and slightly ammoniacal smell is perceptible on 

 gently rubbing their surface. 



It must not, however, be inferred that this high state of pre- 

 servation can exist only in bones that have been imbedded in 

 frozen mud or frozen gravel, since dense clay impermeable to 

 water has been equally effective in preserving the remains of 

 the same extinct species of animals in the milder climate of 

 England. There are, in the Oxford Museum, bones of the ele- 



2 A 2 



