PREHISTORIC ANIMALS OF ALASKA 



/\9. I 



mammoth carcass was discovered imbedded 

 in the ice, with portions of the hair, hide and 

 flesh intact, and it is even related that dogs 

 were feeding on the remains when the dis- 

 covery was made. About two years ago a 

 still more perfect specimen was brought to 

 light in the same locality, which is now 

 mounted and on exhibition in the National 

 Musuem at St. Petersburg, Russia. 



It does not require a very wild flight of 

 imagination to conceive of similar discov- 

 eries being made in Alaska while its secrets 



chopped down through fifteen feet of ice as 

 clear and pure as the finest manufactured 

 article, to again encounter frozen gravel for 

 a depth of fifteen feet before reaching bed 

 rock. Many large tree trunks, well pre- 

 served, were found imbedded in the frozen 

 gravel, and some day we may have the fur- 

 ther good fortune to also find a perfect 

 specimen of one of these noble animals, as 

 all conditions for preserving them exist in 

 "Seward's Folly." 



If the story of an old trapper from the 



PAY DIRT IT IS IN THIS GRAVEL, WHICH IS TAKEN FROM NEXT THE BED ROCK, THAT THE MAMMOTH 



TUSKS ARE FOUND 



are being pried into by explorers and miners, 

 as the following facts will go to show. In 

 the great interior portion of Alaska, with 

 few exceptions, the ground is perpetually 

 frozen to bed rock. In some localities it is 

 very shallow, while in others it may reach a 

 depth of two hundf ed feet. During the 

 summer months the ground thaws for a few 

 feet below the surface, and this thawed 

 ground supports a luxuriant vegetation. In 

 sinking a hole to bed rock but a stone's 

 throw from where the tusk and skull were 

 discovered, the first fifteen feet went through 

 vegetable muck frozen solid, except two 

 feet on the surface. We next encountered 

 about ten feet of frozen gravel, and then 



Porcupine River can be credited, a rich 

 field awaits the explorer along these lines. 

 A few years ago the writer was on a Yukon 

 River steamer, and at the mouth of the 

 Porcupine River, which is approximately 

 on the Arctic Circle, this old trapper was 

 picked up. He brought aboard a number 

 of specimens, including a fine mammoth 

 tusk and several large teeth. 

 . The Porcupine River can be ascended by 

 small boats and light-draft steamers for 

 several months of the year, and it would 

 appear that the story is worth investigating, 

 inasmuch as this river and its tributaries 

 are practically unknown, even to the 

 prospector. 



