PLIOCENE AND PLEISTOCENE FOSSILS FROM THE ARCTIC COAST OF 

 ALASKA AND THE AURIFEROUS REACHES OF NOME, NORTON SOUND, 

 ALASKA. 



By William Healey Dall. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Exploration of the geology of the Arctic and 

 subarctic shores of Alaska began as early as 

 the voyages of Kotzebue andBeechey, in 1816 

 and 1826, and a detailed report on the verte- 

 brate fossils found there, with a wealth of 

 illustration, was made by Sir John Richardson 

 in 1854, in the "Zoology of the voyage of the 

 Herald.'^ Nothing of importance bearing on 

 the Tertiary invertebrates of this region ap- 

 pears in the literature of the' nineteenth cen- 

 tury, and but little on those of the older forma- 

 tions. A search of the marine sandstone 

 strata on the right bank of the Yukon near 

 Nulato, made by me in 1867 and 1868, dis- 

 closed only a few traces of fossils belonging to 

 the genus Mytilus and led to the supposition 

 that the age of the deposit might be Tertiary, 

 but later investigations place it in the Meso- 

 zoic. While I was in the Coast Survey service 

 in 1880 the Pleistocene deposits in Kotzebue 

 Sound and near Bering Strait previously 

 referred to by Chamisso, Beechey, and Rich- 

 ardson were examined,^ and numerous verte- 

 brate remains were collected; but, Vv'ith the 

 exception of a species of Pisidium, no inverte- 

 brates were found. 



With the explorations of F. C. Schrader and 

 W. J. Peters, of the United States Geological 

 Survey, in 1901 ^ the first really systematic 

 geologic reconnaissance of the Arctic coast of 

 Alaska was begun. They described the strati- 

 fication of the coastal deposits and collected 

 marine invertebrate fossils from them, part of 

 which were submitted to me and determined 

 to be of Phocene age. A brief summary of 

 the species was prepared for the above-cited 

 rei:)ort. 



When gold was discovered in the beach sands 

 of the north coast of Norton Sound, near Nome, 



>■ Am. Jour. Soi., 3d ser., vol. 21, pp. 104-111, 1881. 

 2 U. S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 20, 1904. 



in 1898, attention was attracted to this part of 

 Alaska, and the Geological Survey, represented 

 by A. H. Brooks and F. C. Schrader, began 

 geologic work in the following year, but it was 

 not until 1905 that any invertebrate fossils 

 were received from the region; in that year a 

 small lot of nine species received by F. H. Moffit, 

 from Mr. J. J. V. Beaver, of Nome, were sub- 

 mitted to me, and later a report on them was 

 published in the American Journal of Science.^ 

 The interest attaching to these fossils was so 

 great that the members of the Survey working 

 in the region were urged to make special exer- 

 tions to obtain a larger series. 



In 1908 E. M. Kindle, P. S. Smith, and R. D. 

 Mesler succeeded in obtaining a considerable 

 number of specimens from various localities in 

 the vicinity of Nome, of which I prepared a 

 preliminary lisc. * 



In the summers of 1912 and 1914 collections 

 were made on the Arctic coast of Alaska at 

 Peard Bay, about 30 miles southwest of Point 

 Barrow, and at Carter Creek, Camden Bay, 

 about 1 mile from the coast, by E. de K. Leffing- 

 well. A small series of specimens submitted 

 by Leffingwell to the United States Geological 

 Survey was determined by me and considered, 

 to belong to a stratum of the same Pliocene 

 age as those obtained farther east on the Arctic 

 coast by Schrader and Peters. 



GEOLOGY. 

 COLVILLE "SERIES." 



The portion of the Colville "series" referred 

 to the later Tertiary is thus described by 

 Schi'ader : ^ 



This portion of the section is practically free from indu- 

 rated rock. It consists of nearly horizontally stratified 

 beds of fine gray, slate-colored, or ash-colored calcareous 



3 Am. Jour. Sci., 4th ser., vol. 23, p. 457, 1907. 



< Moffit, F. H., Geology of the Nome and Grand Central quadrangles, 

 Alaska: U. S. Geol. Survey Bull. 533, pp. 45-46, 1913. 

 6 U. S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 20, pi. ,83, pi. 14, A, 1904. 



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