Ice-beds on Eschscholtz Bay 93 



animal matter. The fossils are sometimes of great size. In 1848 we 

 collected eight tusks of the antediluvian elephant, the largest of 

 which, though broken at the point, was eleven feet six inches long, 

 one foot nine [p. 35] inches in circumference at the base, and 

 weighed 243 lbs. Molar teeth, thigh-bones, ribs, and other frag- 

 ments of this gigantic animal, and a great number of horse and 

 deer bones, were disinterred. The species found in these cliiTs are 

 the mammoth {Elcphas priuiigenius), the fossil horse (Eqiiiis fos- 

 silis) . the moose-deer (Cerz'iis Alecs), the rein-deer (Ccn'iis Taran- 

 dus), fossil musk-ox (Oz'ibos inoschatiis). OT'ibos luaxiinus. fossil 

 bison {Bison prisciis f), the heavy-horned fossil bison {Bison crassi- 

 cornis), and the big-horn {Ovis nwntana). 



" The uppermost layer, or surface, is from two to five feet thick, 

 consisting of peat, entirely destitute of fossils. It bears the kind of 

 vegetation to which it owes its existence — plants peculiar to moor- 

 lands. Among them many mosses, lichens, sedges, and several 

 Ericacecc and willows may be recognized, the occurrence of which 

 demonstrates the possibility of the growth of plants in a soil frozen 

 beneath, a fact formerly much disputed. 



" As the ice could not have been formed by water percolating 

 through the clay and afterwards becoming frozen, it is natural to 

 conclude that it was in its present site previous to the arrival of the 

 clay. This conclusion is strengthened by the evidence afforded by 

 the clay itself, for the fossils are solely confined to that layer. If 

 these were indiscriminately distributed, we might be led to suppose 

 that the whole had undergone the same revolution : such not being 

 the case, we are forced to believe that the clay with its fossils arrived 

 after the ice had been firmly established, and, as these fossils belong 

 to the antediluvian period, the ice must be very old. 



" Dr. Richardson, with that accuracy for which he [p. 36] is 

 so distinguished, has in the ' Zoology of the Voyage of H. INI. S. 

 Herald ' described the bones collected by us, and prefaced his de- 

 scription by the following philosophical observations : 



[The Zoology of the Voyage of H. M. S. Herald, under Captain Henry 

 Kellett, during the Years of 1845-51. Fossil mammals. By Sir John 

 Richardson. Printed in 1852, but not published until 1854. Observations on 

 the Fossil Bone Deposit in Eschscholtz Bay, pp. 1-8.] 



" The science of chemistry, as at present taught, justifies our 

 belief that animal substances, when solidly frozen and kept steadily 

 in a temperature below the freezing point, do not undergo putrefac- 

 tion, and may be preserved without change for any conceivable 



