164 SYSTEMATIC PALEONTOLOGY 



In point of time this is the latest of the extinct true elephants and it 

 is the only one whose presence in America seems to be satisfactorily ac- 

 counted for. The abundance of mammoth bones in Alaska and the con- 

 ditions under which they occur indicate that it came from Siberia, and 

 if its tracks are not to be seen, there are places where Dr. Dall tells us 

 the excrement 4 of the beast is embedded in the ice. 



Occurrence. — Although remains of the animal are abundant in parts 

 of Alaska, owing to difficulties in the way of exhuming and transporting 

 bones, nothing like a complete skeleton or even a good skull has been re- 

 covered. The best specimens have been found lying in the beds of ancient 

 and obliterated streams exposed in prosecuting mining work, but no one 

 has been on hand to take advantage of a " find " while those engaged in 

 mining naturally had no time and little desire to undertake the work of 

 removal. No complete specimens with the flesh preserved have been 

 found as in Siberia. The nearest approach to this has been recorded by 

 Dr. W. H. Dall who obtained from the banks of the Yukon pieces of fat, 

 very nearly transformed into adipocere, and was told that part of the 

 animal had been present. If such were the case it must have been due 

 to a washing down of the body and its subsequent entombment in mud. 



In this connection it may be well to say that the recent work of Mr. 

 A. G Maddren 5 seems to indicate that the general conditions in Alaska 

 and Siberia were not so unlike as we have been led to believe, and that it 

 is entirely probable that there was no general glaciation in northern 

 Siberia and no entombment of mammoths in glacial ice. Mr. Maddren 

 considers that the bodies of the mammoth rested on the ice and not in 

 it, and that the formation of this ice was due to local causes and con- 

 fined to limited areas. 



A left upper molar from Oxford Neck is the most striking tooth from 

 Maryland, as it is the largest undeniable tooth of E. primigenius that 

 the writer has seen, measuring 11 x 6^ x 3| inches, the worn grinding 



* Mr. Maddren suggests that this is decaying vegetable matter pure and 

 simple, bearing no relation to the mammoth. 



15 The results of Mr. Maddren's important work are given in a paper entitled 

 "Smithsonian Exploration in Alaska in 1904 in Search of Mammoth and 

 Other Fossil Remains." Smithsonian Misc. Coll. part of XLIX, 1905. 



