NO. 3 SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, I915 39 



From the second ridge on upward the heretofore rather skiggish river 

 current quickened perceptibly and quite suddenly. Again pebbles and small 

 fossil remains appeared on the bars, formerly composed only of very fine 

 alluvial matter. 



All these three places yielded a moderate amount of fossils. These remains 

 are now all in the possession of the United States National Museum. 



At midnight, on July i, we returned to Nizhni Kolymsk. and five days later 

 our schooner left on the return trip. I reached Nome on September 17. and 

 Seattle on October 9. 



Between Cape Big BaranotT and Chaun Bay a few more fossils were added 

 to the collection. Some of them were found on the base of the elevated tundra 

 silts facing the ocean, on many places between mountain ridges. The eleva- 

 tions of this tundra beach differ greatlv according to localitv. The surface of 



Fig. 52. — Tundra beach near Chaun Bay. This picture shows detail of central 

 part of figure 51, which compare. Fossils found here. 



the frozen tundra was in August, 1915, overgrown with luxuriant .\rctic 

 grasses and herbs. The driftwood found along the beach comes from distant 

 locaHties and has been brought down by the large rivers of the north. Tn 

 many instances it is even undoubtedly of American origin. 



Some of these fossils — among them a fairly complete mammoth skull — 

 were found in little cross gulches dug by small water courses. 



Mr. J. W. Gidley, in charge of fossil mammals in the Xational 

 Museum, reports that the collection of bones sent in by the Siberian 

 exi:)edition contains a few fine specimens together with a considerable 

 number of isolated bones which are valuable for study and com- 

 parison. They all indicate a late Pleistocene age, as the bones of 

 many of the forms represented can with difficulty be distinguished 

 from those of species still living in that region. 



