Because of their north polar orientation, most maps and atlases, 

 especially those of North America, show Alaska extending up to 

 the far left-hand corner (like a pterodactyl's wing with its 

 elongated little finger) and with its long axis running almost 

 north to south. If, however, you make your map on Kodiak 

 Island and orient it to the Pole from there, you will find that 

 the country runs from east to west and that the Pacific coast is 

 on the south side, the Arctic to the north, the Bering Sea to the 

 west, and Canada to the east. The Mackenzie River will thus 

 form part of your northern boundary. 



Alaska is clearly divided into three parts, partly but by no 

 means entirely due to topography. It is fringed on the north, 

 west, and southwest by true Arctic tundras, and this type of 



vegetation extends along the Aleutian Islands far to the south. 

 But, surprisingly , the south coast from Kodiak Island eastward 

 IS clothed in moss-laden spruce, firs, and hemlocks and dense 

 alder thickets, a type of growth which is referred to as "rain 

 forest" and which extends south along the Pacific coast to 

 Vancouver Island. The central, inland, and main body of the 

 province, which includes two-thirds of the Yukon and a strip 

 of the Canadian Northwest Territories, is mountainous and is 

 really an extension of the great Spruce- Aspen or Hudsonian 

 Forest Belt. 



The eastern edge of the province locks around the pine-spruce 

 transition belt which, as we shall see in the next chapter, 

 pushes westward to the headwaters of the Yukon. However, it 

 must be emphasized that the provinces as here defined, while 

 primarily dependent upon the distribution of the major 

 vegetational belts that girdle the earth latitudinally. actually 

 contain but sections of those belts, like the variously colored 

 bands of a coral snake. Further, two or more major belts may 

 be compressed into a single province; in fact, we have in this 

 province Tundra, the Boreal, Hudsonian, or Spruce-Aspen 

 Coniferous Belt, and some of the Pine-Spruce Subbelt. The 

 dense forests of the southern coast are not really contained 

 within the Deciduous Forest Belt, but are rather an extension of 

 it, due to certain exigencies of climate produced by ocean 

 currents. 



Alaska and its Aleutian Islands form a very distinct natural 

 country with many features that are unique — notably in its 

 geological history and present-day make-up, which is quite 

 unlike any other part of the world. Its fauna, and to some extent 

 its flora, include some forms not found elsewhere, but both 

 are on the whole typical of the three belts represented. 

 Also, it is of enormous size, spreading over 2800 miles from 

 west to east and being over 800 miles on the average from 

 north to south. The southwestern peninsula and the Aleutian 

 Islands account for half its width. At one point — Diomede 

 Island — it is only four miles from Asia. 



that it was much freer of snow; that, although there may have 

 been permafrost at depth (left over from some previous refrig- 

 eration), its surface was not frozen down to a considerable 

 depth; and that it supported, even on the lowlands, a much 

 lusher and taller growth of vegetation than it does today. The 

 reason for so supposing is the extraordinary volume of animal 

 remains, including not only fresh bones but also flesh, that has 

 been found in it. This state of affairs resembles that found all 

 across northern Siberia on the other side of the Bering Strait. 

 and is quite contrary to that on the central and eastern tundras 

 of Canada. 



Permafrost means simpy permanently frozen ground, notably 

 soils and subsoil. Such soil, like the surface of your garden at 

 more southern latitudes in midwinter, is really a sort of rock, 

 just as solid and just as impermeable to water. In Arctic lands 

 this permafrost may extend downward for hundreds or even 

 thousands of feet and may contain within it at various levels (as 

 has been discovered by borings in Siberia) great strata of ancient 

 ice. From this it is manifest that the whole mass has not melted 

 at any one time since it was laid down, and that seems to have 

 been very long ago. Certain frozen soils have been estimated to 

 be as much as 100,000 years old. The really puzzling thing is 

 that this permafrost in Alaska and Siberia contains enormous 



quantities of animal bones and flesh, half-decayed vegetation, 

 wood, and other remains of living things that, in some areas, 

 together constitute a sizable percentage of the whole. 



THE FROZEN HORDES 



Few, if any, of these forms of life are found today in these 

 countries or anywhere near them. Further, a high percentage of 

 all these remains are of large animals like Woolly Rhinoceroses, 

 giant Lions, giant Beaver, extinct species of huge Bison, Musk Ox, 

 and Hairy Elephants or Mammoths; while there are also abun- 

 dant remains of large trees, even fruit-bearing, broad-leafed 

 trees. It is manifest, therefore, that the country pjior to being 

 refrigerated — and right up to the time that it was — must not 

 only have had a very much milder climate but also must have 

 been outside the Arctic, since within the Arctic Circle there is 

 simply not enough sunlight distributed throughout the year in 

 a suitable manner for such plants to grow, let alone in sufficient 

 quantity to maintain these great numbers of large animals. 



Just to take one example, great numbers of huge mammoths 

 have been found preserved in this frozen soil, or "muck" as it 

 is called, all of them in good health and most of them with full 



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