14 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 5 1 



We were not successful in finding that which was most desired. 

 a fairly complete skeleton of a mammoth, but the expedition was by 

 no means barren of results, as will be noted later. 



III. Occurrence of Fossils 



The scattered remains of Pleistocene animals occur throughout 

 the ungiaciated region of Alaska and adjacent Canadian territory in 

 three quite distinct deposits : First, in the black muck accumulated 

 in gulches and the valleys of the smaller streams ; second, in the fine 

 elevated clays of the Yukon silts and Kozvak clays; and, third, in the 

 more recent fluvial and alluvial deposits. The specimens as found 

 have been disinterred either through the erosive agency of the 

 streams or by the work of the miner in the operations conducted 

 in search of gold. 



Although so generally distributed, there have been reported, so 

 far as known to the writer, but two well-authenticated occurrences of 

 accumulations of bones under such conditions as to suggest an 

 original entombment. While the writer was shown bones pro- 

 truding from the face of the undisturbed beds in the Klondike 

 region (see pi. iv, rig. i), and in other instances collected specimens 

 actually imbedded in the elevated silts along the Yukon River, they 

 were in all cases disarticulated and scattered, and there was no 

 evidence of an association of any of the parts found. 



Diligent inquiry was made among miners, trappers, and other 

 residents of Alaska, met along the route traveled, concerning what 

 they knew of the occurrence of fossil specimens. While nearly all 

 were familiar with the fragmental and scattered parts, very little 

 information was elicited of an accumulation of bones that would 

 lead one to believe a skeleton or even a part of a skeleton had ever 

 been found together in any one place. 



While the scattered depositions occur as separate bones, skulls, 

 teeth, tusks, horns, etc.. throughout the formations mentioned, the 

 condition of the specimens found varies greatly. Some are in such 

 a good state of preservation they certainly could not have traveled 

 far from the original place of interment, while on the other hand 

 many bones are broken, abraded, and water-worn, and show unmis- 

 takable evidence of having been carried considerable distances. 

 Bones representing these several phases were often found com- 

 mingled and occupying relatively the same positions, whether it be 

 in the muck, on a river bar. or imbedded in the undisturbed silt 

 deposits. 



