8o Smithsonian Exploration in Alaska in 1904 



" This circumstance seems to suggest to us that it is worthy of 

 consideration whether or not there may have existed any similar 

 cause of error in the case of the celebrated carcass of an elephant in 

 Siberia, which is said to have fallen entire from an iceberg in the 

 cliffs near the Lena. The Tungusian who discovered this carcass 

 suspended in what he called an iceberg may possibly have made no 

 verv accurate distinction between a pure iceberg and a cliff of 

 frozen mud. 



" It is stated by Lieutenant Belcher, that at a spot he visited on 

 the southeast shore of Eschscholtz Bay, on ascending what appeared 

 at first to be a solid hillock, he found a heap of loose materials, un- 

 safe to walk on, and having streams of liquid mud oozing from it on 

 all sides through coarse grass ; that as the melting subsoil of the hil- 

 lock sinks gradually down, the incumbent peat subsides with it; so 

 that at no very distant period the entire hillock will disappear. In 

 other mud cliffs, also, he observed similar streams of liquid mud, ac- 

 companied by a depression of the surface immediately above them. 

 Thus, from the month of June to October these cliffs are constantly 

 thawing, and throwing down small avalanches of mud, which be- 

 tween Cape Blossom and Cape Kruzenstern, are so numerous that 

 you can scarce stand there an hour without witnessing the downfall 

 of some portion of the thawing cliffs. Hence originates a succession 

 of ravines and gullies, which do not run far inland, and afford no 

 sections, being covered with the debris of the [603] superficial peat 

 that falls into them. Small streams of muddy water, of the consist- 

 ency of cream, ooze from the sides of these ravines, the water being 

 supplied by the melting of the particles of ice which pervade the 

 substance of the frozen mud and peat. 



" There remain, then, three important points, on which all the 

 English ofiicers concur in the same opinion: ist, That the bones and 

 tusks of elephants at Eschscholtz Bay are not dei;ived from the 

 superficial peat ; 2dly, That they are not derived from any masses of 

 pure ice ; 3dly, That, although collected chiefly on the shore at the 

 base of the falling cliff, they are derived only from the mud and sand 

 of which this cliff is composed. 



" The occurrence of cliffs composed of diluvial mud is by no means 

 peculiar to the south shore of Eschscholtz Bay. It will be seen by 

 reference to the map (Plate I, Geology), that they are more exten- 

 sive, but at a less elevation along the north shore of the same bay, 

 and also on the southwest of it, at Shallow Inlet, in Spafarief Bay. 

 Indeed, in following the line of coast north-eastwards, from the 

 Arctic Circle, near Beering's Strait, to lat. 71° N., wherever the 



