EXPLORATION IN ALASKA IN IOX)/ — GILMORE 37 



more likely, however, if referable at all to a living' form, it would 

 be R. articos, the barren-ground caribou and now living in these 

 regions. 



As mentioned by Richardson, Zoology of the Voyage of H. M. S. 

 Herald, 1854,' p. 20, fragmentary remains have been found at Esch- 

 scholtz Bay, and the writer collected fragments of antlers on Little 

 Minook Creek Junior and on the Nowitna River. 



So far, remains have not been found sufficiently complete upon 

 ■which an accurate specific determination could Tae based. 



URSUS, sp. undet. 



The finding of a scapula and astragulus of Ursus associated with 

 the remains of other Pleistocene animals on the Nowitna River 

 during the summer of 1907 verifies a former record of the occurrence 

 ■of the bear in the Pleistocene of Alaska. 



The scapula, although incomplete, indicates an animal about the 

 size of the black bear (Ursus americanus), an inhabitant of these 

 regions at the present time. 



Bones 1 of Ursus have also been found associated with mammoth 

 remains in a cave on St. Paul Island of the Pribilof group. 



CASTOR, sp. undet. 



Among the vertebrate remains collected on the Xowitna River in 

 1907 were the left pelvic bones (No. 5942, U. S. National Museum) 

 of a beaver. This appears to be the first occurrence recorded of the 

 finding of bones of Castor, although Mr. E. W. Nelson, 2 who visited 

 Eschscholtz Bay in 1881 with the U. S. S. Corzvin, observed a 

 leaver's nest imbedded in the cliffs at that place, and noted that 

 many of the sticks composing it had been gnawed and others still 

 retained the tooth-marks made by that animal. 



The remains found, however, are too fragmentary to admit of 

 specific determination. 



Summary 



From the preceding review of the extinct vertebrates reported 

 as occurring in the Pleistocene deposits of x\laska, it will be seen 

 that the identification of several of the forms has been based upon 

 such scanty and fragmentary material that their determination is 



1 These remains, collected by the party with Dr. D. S. Jordan in 1897, are 

 -now in the paleontological collection of the U. S. National Museum. 



* Maddren, A. G. : Smithsonian Misc. Coll., vol. xiix. No. 1584, 1905, pp. 

 112-113. 



