54 Smithsonian Exploration in Alaska in 1904 



has completely disappeared from the samples we have described. 

 Herz does not say anything about the sheets of the principle mass 

 of ice, he mentions only thin sheets of ice which appear in the layer 

 of earth which covers the main body of ice. We can therefore say 

 that the division of the main ice mass into layers either does not 

 exist at all, or has been obscured by the secondary process of melt- 

 ing and erosion, and this last is the most likely thing to have 

 happened." 



The writer cannot agree that " the secondary process of melting " 

 has obscured any stratified appearance of the principal ice mass on 

 the Beresowka. Herz more probably failed to note such structure 

 because it did not exist. However, he suggests that a more or less 

 secondary and superficial process of melting partly accounts for the 

 ice with large gas content such as Tolmatschow's samples exhibit 

 and also for its granular structure. Granting all the theoretical 

 considerations of ice Tolmatschow asks for, and granting without 

 hesitation that his samples are snow ice, we are no nearer an expla- 

 nation of the true origirt of the fundamental bed of ice on the 

 Beresowka. The characters of his samples fail to prove that the 

 bed of ice in the terrace of the Beresowka has an origin from con- 

 solidated beds of drifted snow. 



There appears to be two distinct kinds of ice associated with the 

 mammoth on the bank of the Beresowka. One of fundamental, 

 the other of superficial position and arrangement ; one of stable and 

 the other of transitory aspect. The writer considers the samples 

 gathered by Herz and examined by Tolmatschow were from that 

 kind of ice which is superficial in position and more or less transi- 

 tory in its origin and occurrence ; that therefore it is of no weight 

 whatever in demonstrating that the fundamental ice feature of the 

 Beresowka is of snow origin. 



To explain: Tolmatschow's samples {A), two small pieces, 

 came from a little ditch excavated imder the mammoth 1.9 meters 

 deep; {B) a large piece came from the lower part of the ice wall 

 which is situated on the upper edge of the terrace on the bank of 

 the river 55 meters above its level. 



In brief, samples {A) came from the sliding talus slope and may 

 well be of snow origin as the winter snows accumulate, pack down 

 in crevices, and together with thaw water percolating through the 

 interstices of the frozen talus blocks, become consolidated into ice. 

 This appears to account for all the ice immediately associated with 

 the mammoth's carcass as described and figured by Tolmatschow. 



Sample {B) may also be of snow origin for snow accumulates 



