472 MR. CHA.S. DAVISON ON SNOWDRIFT DEPOSITS. [^-"g- 1 894, 



31. On Deposits from Snowdrift, with especial Reference to the 

 Origin of the Loess and the Preservation of Mammoth- 

 remains. By Charles Davison, Esq., M.A., F.G.S., of King 

 Edward's High School, Birmingham. (Read June 20th, 1894.) 



Contents. Page 



I. Introduction 472 



II. Bibliography 472 



III. Observations on Snowdrift Deposits 473 



IV. Formation of Snowdrift Deposits 475 



V. Nature of Snowdrift Deposits 482 



VI. The Origin of the Loess 484 



VII. The Preservation of Mammoth-remains 485 



VIII. Origin of the Underground Ice-formation 485 



I. Introduction. 



The principal object of this paper is to draw attention to the occur- 

 rence of deposits from snowdrift, and to describe their nature and 

 the conditions under which they are formed. The subject is a wide 

 one, but in discussing it I have endeavoured to keep constantly in 

 view its bearings on two geological problems, about which there has 

 been, and still is, a considerable difference of opinion. These are 

 the origin of the loess, and the destruction of the mammoth and 

 preservation of its remains. The formation of underground-ice, 

 observed by Dall and others on the northern coasts of America and 

 Asia, will also be referred to. 



When snow is driven by a strong wind, it is accompanied under 

 certain conditions by a considerable quantity of dust. The snow 

 and dust are deposited together in sheltered places, and, as the 

 former disappears by melting and evaporation, the dust is left on 

 its surface as a layer of mud, continually increasing in thickness as 

 the snow wastes away. The views here advanced are, briefly, 

 (1) that the loess is such a deposit from snowdrift, chiefly collected 

 when the climate was much colder, but still very slowly growing ; 

 and (2) that the mammoth was frozen or suffocated in masses of 

 drift-snow, and subsequently covered by the deposits formed from 

 them, which in certain cases attained a thickness sufficient to prevent 

 further melting of the snow beneath. 



II. Bibliography. 



Andree. — ' Sur la Chasse-neige dans les Regions arctiques,' Arch, des Sc. phys. 



et nat. vol. xv. (1886) pp. 523-533. 

 Beechey, Capt. F. W. — ' Narrative of a Voyage to the Pacific and Beering's 



Strait.' 2 vols., 1831. 

 Belcher, Sir E. — ' The Last of the Arctic Voyages.' 2 vols., 1855. 

 Dall, W. H. — ' Notes on Alaska and the Vicinity of Bering Strait,' Amer. 



Journ. Sci. ser. 3, vol. xxi. (1881; pp. 104-111. 

 Dall, W. H., and G. D. Harris. — ' Correlation Papers— Neocene,' TJ. S. Geol. 



Surv., Bull. no. 84 (1892), pp. 260-68. 

 De Long, G. W.— ' The Voyage of the Jeanmite.' 2 vols., 1883. 

 Gilder, W. H. — ' Ice-Pack and Tundra.' 



