Land Ice and the Mammoth 6i 



away for Siberia, without any action, but there are only some local 

 traces remaining. If the humidity of northern Siberia, which now 

 has a very dry climate, were to increase slightly, the rainfall would 

 certainly increase. It is quite possible that the formation of lake 

 deposits of ice would occur during a period with heavy rainfall. 

 But even if we call these older deposits of ice ' fossil ice ' it does 

 not follow that it is either the remains of a glacier or of continental 

 ice. because, for such occurrence many different conditions and char- 

 acteristic features are necessary, which are not yet known to exist 

 in northern Siberia. 



" As appears from the description of the Beresowka valley, de- 

 posits corresponding to the horizon of the mammoth are very com- 

 mon in this part of Siberia. All the older ground-ice deposits most 

 likely belong to the same horizon." 



In brief, Tolmatschow appears to be aware, without being con- 

 scious of the significance thereof, of the existence of an older ice 

 on top of elevated Pleistocene silts. No doubt if he had viewed the 

 phenomena personally he would have fully recognized this apparent 

 fact. 



Wrangell ''* says : " The best mammoth bones as well as the 

 greatest number are found at a certain depth below the surface, 

 usually in clay hills, more rarely in black earth. The more solid 

 the clay, the better the bones are preserved. Experience has always 

 shown that more are found in elevations situated near higher hills 

 than along the low coast or on the flat tundra." 



The one point that appears to be a matter of unanimous agree- 

 ment among those who have described the Elephant Point locality 

 on Kotzebue Sound, Alaska, is that the remains never occur in the 

 ice-bed nor the peaty or earthy layers overlying it. It has been 

 generally conceded they were derived from the clay beneath the 

 ice. Hooper's suggestion is worthy of serious notice in accounting 

 for some of the remains at Elephant Point. He says : "" " Kotzebue 

 was undobutedly in error in supposing that the fossil remains of 

 animals found in the vicinity were embedded in the cliff, I exam- 

 ined them carefully each season and saw no signs of animal remains 

 of any kind ; while on the shore (beach) below high-water mark, 

 we found them in abundance. They were not confined to the local- 

 ity of the cliff', but extended each way as far as our investigations 

 reached. They evidently came from the Buckland River, and were 



" Wrangell's Voyages, p. 286, note. 

 *° See Appendix. 



