26 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS. VOL. 5 1 



Eastern States, from which many of the best skeletons of the 

 Mastodon, have been obtained. 



From the evidence reviewed the writer believes that the deposits 

 of muck represent the most likely places from which to secure 

 remains of this extinct fauna. 



The writer takes this opportunity to express his appreciation for 

 the assistance given him by Mr. A. H. Brooks and Mr. A. G. 

 Maddren, of the U. S. Geological Survey. Many services were 

 rendered by residents of Alaska along the route traveled, and favors 

 were extended by agents and officials of the Northern Commercial 

 Company. Mr. J. B. Duncan, of Rampart ; Air. Frank Haslund, of 

 Kokrines, and Mr. Frederick, of Andreafski, were especially kind 

 in many ways. My thanks are also due Mr. J. W. Gidley of the 

 National Museum, for help in the identification of specimens. 



IV. The Pleistocene Fauna oe Alaska. 



Although a number of species have been described from the Pleis- 

 tocene deposits of Alaska, they have for the most part been based 

 on fragmentary, and therefore rather unsatisfactory, specimens. In 

 many cases the principal osteological and dental characters are not 

 known, and on that account it is not always possible to compare them 

 intelligently with related forms. 



Only a few of the large number of localities where fossils have 

 been found furnish well-defined specimens, capable of specific 

 determination, and while these vertebrates are interesting from the 

 standpoint of their general geographical distribution, they are of 

 comparatively little aid in the interpretation of the local deposits. The 

 forms have been entombed under such exceptional conditions as to 

 raise some question regarding the exact age of the deposits in which 

 they are many times found, although they could not have antedated 

 Pleistocene time. A glance at the list of determinable species is 

 sufficient to show at once that they represent a typical Pleistocene 

 fauna, some of which, as the moose, caribou, musk-ox, sheep, bear, 

 and beaver, have persisted down to the present day. 



To aid the student, there is given here a list of the various genera 

 and species thus far reported as occurring in Alaska, followed by 

 a brief review of each, with a reference to the original description ; 

 the condition and present location of the type specimen (if known, 

 and when based upon fossil remains) upon which these were 

 founded, and in some cases figures of representative specimens from 

 Alaska. Some additional information has been derived from a 

 Study of specimens in the vertebrate paleontological collection of the 



