FOSSIL REMAINS. 347 



With respect to the matrix of frozen mud, from which 

 these remains are said to be derived, it appears, from speci- 

 mens of it adhering to the bones, that it consists of micaceous 

 sand and quartzose sand, intermixed with fine blue clay. In 

 the hollow of one of the tusks I found a quantity of this com- 

 pound, and some fragments of mica slate. All these ingre- 

 dients may have been derived from the detritus of primitive 

 micaceous slates, such as constitute a large part of the funda- 

 mental rocks of the neighbourhood of Eschscholtz Bay. 



Pebbles of porphyry also are said to occvn* in the cliff, and 

 also on the beach below it, mixed, in the latter case, with peb- 

 bles of basalt and sandstone, and a few large blocks of basalt. 

 No rock was noticed in this district from which these rolled 

 stones could have been derived ; some of those upon the beach 

 may possibly have been drifted thither on floating icebergs. 

 The tranquil state and retired position of the bay render it 

 improbable that these pebbles have been brought to their pre- 

 sent place by the influence of any existing submarine currents. 



It is important to clear from confusion two facts mentioned 

 by Captain Beechey, viz. the occurrence of remains of the 

 rein-deer, and of the musk-ox, along with bones of the ele- 

 phant in Eschscholtz Bay. Had the bones of either of these 

 arctic animals been found unequivocally mixed with the bones 

 of elephants in any undisturbed part of the high cliff, it would 

 have followed that the rein-deer and the musk-ox nmst have 

 been coeval with the fossil elephant ; and this fact would have 

 been nearly decisive of the question as to the climate of this 

 region at the time when it was inhabited by these three species 

 of animals. But as all the fossil remains collected in Esch- 

 scholtz Bay, with the exception of a very few bones and the 

 tusk of an elephant that lay high up in the under cliff, were 

 collected on the beach between high and low water mark, 

 nothing is more probable than that the bones of modern ani- 

 mals should become mixed with these fossils after they had 

 fallen upon the beach in the recesses of a quiet bay. 



Kotzebue (vol. I. p. 218) says he saw many horns of rein- 

 deer lying on the shore in Eschscholtz Bay, and conjectures 

 that the Americans, who frequent these coasts occasionally irt 



