234 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS [voL. 48 
during the summer of 1904, by Mr. A. G. Maddren, under the direc- 
tion of the Smithsonian Institution, in search of mammoth and other 
fossil remains. Mr. Maddren refers to observations made in 1899, - 
when he travelled the length of the Yukon River; in 1900 when 
various points on the coasts of Bering Sea, eastern Siberia, and of 
the Arctic ocean as far east as Cape Beaufort were visited; and in 
1902-03 when a year was spent in residence on the Alaska peninsula. 
During these previous years ice in various forms was frequently 
noted, but not until the summer of 1904 was it made a special object 
of notice in relation to the Pleistocene deposits. 
Mr. Maddren’s object was to find, if possible, complete skeletons 
of the mammoth and other large extinct mammals reported as occur- 
ring in that region or at least a locality promising enough in its 
indications to warrant further investigation. This search was con- 
fined to the Pleistocene deposits of northern Alaska in which most of 
the Mammoth and other vertebrate remains occur. Hence the ob- 
servations treat of these formations and the criteria by which they 
are to be distinguished from the more recent ice and alluvial deposits 
which have been variously noticed and discussed by travellers and 
writers. 
The problems of geographic distribution of the animal and vege- 
table life of North America in Pleistocene time with the disturbance 
of faunas and floras caused by the widespread glaciation during that 
period and their subsequent readjustment over the glaciated area, 
all combine to form a complex arrangement, to solve which will 
require large collections of specimens from the Pleistocene deposits 
of the unglaciated area of Alaska and the adjacent Canadian terri- 
tory. For at present our knowledge of this fauna and flora is very 
limited. As far as we know, only one species of elephant (Elephas 
primigenius), the Mammoth, inhabited Alaska and Siberia during 
pleistocene time. 
The longest mammoth tusk so far reported from Alaska is one 
12 feet Io inches long, measured on the outside of the curve. Re- 
mains of the rhinoceros have not been reported with those of the 
mammoth in Alaska, as in Siberia, and it also appears that the re- 
mains of the mammoth in Alaska are not in as fresh a state of 
preservation as those found in Siberia, which points to the surmise 
that the mammoth became extinct in Alaska before the last of the 
species succumbed in Siberia. Associated with the mammoth were 
herds of large bison and horses. This species of horse may have 
