SMITHSONIAN EXPLOR.\TION IN ALASKA IN 1904 IN 



SEARCH OF MAMMOTH AND OTHER FOSSIL 



REMAINS 



By a. G. MADDREN 



I. Introduction 



The notes herewith presented are the result of an expedition to 

 Alaska and adjacent territory made during the summer of 1904, 

 under the direction of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 

 through Dr. George P. Merrill, Head Curator, Department of 

 Geology, U. S. National Museum. Conclusions are also in part 

 based on observations made in 1899, when the writer travelled the 

 length of the Yukon River; in 1900 when various points on the 

 coasts of Bering Sea, eastern Siberia, and of the Arctic ocean as 

 far east as Cape Beaufort were visited ; and 1902-03 when a year 

 was spent in residence on the Alaska peninsula. During these 

 previous years ice in various forms was frequently noted, but not 

 until the summer of 1904 was it made a special object of notice in 

 relation to the Pleistocene deposits. 



The object was to find, if possible, complete skeletons of the 

 mammoth and other large extinct mammals reported as occurring 

 in that region or at least a locality promising enough in its indica- 

 tions to warrant further investigation. This search was confined 

 to the Pleistocene deposits of northern Alaska in which most of 

 the Mammoth and other vertebrate remains occur. Hence the fol- 

 lowing observations treat of these formations and the criteria by 

 which they are to be distinguished from the more recent ice and 

 alluvial deposits which have been variously noticed and discussed 

 by travellers and writers. The present writer has been able to 

 verify many of the observations previously recorded and he hopes 

 that the following review of the subject to date in the light of his 

 own observations may elucidate some of the debated questions re- 

 garding the character and origin of the arctic Pleistocene deposits. 

 The classification of the ice deposits, their relation to the Pleistocene, 

 with the opinion concerning the ice beds of Eschscholtz Bay, about 

 which there has been much discussion, is advanced tentativelv with 



