24 Smithsonian Exploration in Alaska in 1904 



the first observer to call attention to this : " It is an interesting fact 

 that all the bones of the mammoth and of other large animals that 

 have been found in Alaska occur, as far as I am aware, in regions 

 not glaciated during the Pleistocene period. The relation of mam- 

 moth remains to the distribution of glaciers in Alaska acquires ad- 

 ditional importance in view of the fact that no evidence of glaciation 

 has been reported in northern Siberia, where similar mammalian 

 remains are also abundant. 



" The study of glacial records by various observers has shown 

 that the great Pleistocene glaciers of this continent extended out- 

 words in all directions from two main centers of accumulation, one 

 in Labrador and the other in the northern part of the Rocky Moun- 

 tain region. During their greatest extension these two great glacier 

 systems seem to have been confluent so that a vast ice field stretched 

 across the continent from ocean to ocean. The northward move- 

 ment of the ancient ice sheet was not sufficient in all places to reach 

 the Arctic ocean (see map). In view of this fact, it may be sug- 

 gested that the abundance of mammalian bones is due to the crowd- 

 ing northward and final extinction of land animals of the Pleistocene 

 period by the advance of continental glaciers from the south." 



2. DAWSON QUOTED 



G. M. Dawson ^* substantiates Russell's observations in " Notes 

 on the Occurrence of Mammoth remains in the Yukon District of 

 Canada and in Alaska." He says in part: 



" The writer in 1887 travelled through the valleys of the Pelly 

 and Lewes rivers, but did not go below the confluence of these 

 streams. In the whole region thus traversed no Mammoth remains 

 were met with nor was their presence reported by such of the gold- 

 miners as had worked in parts of these valleys ; though some of 

 the same men had frequently noted Mammoth bones farther down 

 the Yukon valley, particularly in the vicinity of Forty-Mile Creek. 



" Within the area which was covered by the great Cordilleran 

 Glacier, remains of the Mammoth are either entirely wanting or are 

 very scarce. The reported finding of a tooth on the southern p^rt 

 of Vancouver Island, and a portion of a large bone of doubtful de- 

 termination in gravels worked for gold on Cherry Creek, Okanagan 

 District, British Columbia, are the only possible exceptions known 

 to the writer." 



The tooth from Vancouver Island may no doubt be referred along 



" Quart. Jour. Geo!. Soc, Lond., Vol. L, 1894, PP- i-9- 



