34; It is expected that the explorations here authorized will probably consume not more than four months of this year." The first alluvial deposits encountered of any considerable thickness after passing the rapids were on the right bank some twelve miles above the mouth of the Tanana River Fort Gibbon, a military post at the junction of the Tanana and Yukon rivers, was reached on the evening of June 30.
The Nowitna enters the Yukon from the southwest, about 75 miles below the mouth of the Tanana. It rises on the eastern slope of the Kaiyuh Mountains, and we are told that its sources are con-.
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EXPLORATION IN ALASKA IN I907 — GILMORE II
This little stream enters a tributary of the Yukon from the south three miles below Louden's settlement. Eight miles below Louden, on the right bank of the Yukon, a typical exposure of Yukon silt occurs. The bluffs extend for a distance of perhaps two miles, and present faces from two hundred to two hundred and fifty feet high, equal to those of the Palisade escarpment, which they resemble in all their stratigraphic details.
From a distance this silt-laden air, as it poured over the crest of the bluff, reminded one of an ever-rising vol-. About five or six miles above Hall's Rapids, on the right bank, bones of the mammoth and bison were collected at the foot of the silt gullies, and again above the old station of Greyling, about twenty-five miles above Anvik, where the silt . is exposed for two or three miles by the cutting of the river.
EXPLORATION IN ALASKA IN IQOJ — GILMORK. 13 sented by him through the writer to the Smithsonian Institution
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Occurrence of Fossils
2.—SKULLS OF ELEPHAS PRIMIGENIUS AND BISON FROM THE MOCK OF FOX GULCH, BONANZA CREEK, NEAR DAWSON, YUKON TERRITORY, CANADA.
EXPLORATION IN ALASKA IN KJO/ — GILMORE I 5 The best-preserved specimens coming under the observation of
EXPLORATION IN ALASKA IN THIS/— GILMORE I5 The best preserved specimens that come under the observation of. Those seen in place were from twelve to eighteen inches above the bed of gravel, and upon investigation it was learned that all the specimens here taken had come from about the same horizon. The gorse and gravel, which rest incongruously on the rocks below, are frozen hard, but melt rapidly under the heat of the summer sun, and large pieces were constantly falling during our examination of the face.
This thawed material emitted the unpleasant odor of decomposing organic matter, a phenomenon observed by many others, notably Dall,1 who attributed it to it. Between the mud in Fox Gulch was a layer of wood, represented by many neat sticks (see (d), fig. 1), their ends in. For example, several of the bison skulls had the outer horn, entire sets of teeth, and the fragile, delicate bones of the front part of the face remains intact.
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The bluff area extends a kilometer or more down and around an almost right-angled bend in the left channel of the river (see. The top of the bluffs extends back from the river as a level, densely wooded tableland. The sacrum, part of the pelvis, two dorsal sides , ribs and scapula were the parts recovered.
No. 5728, U. S. National Museum) was found on a narrow shelf just above the point (3 on map, see fig. 2) where the underlying gravel first appears. In addition, the skull and other cavities of the skull are filled with the fine silt that composes the bluff. The worn and abraded appearance of most of the fossils here suggests that they drifted away and were not in a place of primary burial.
On closer examination, however, it turned out to be a superficial layer on the face of the exposure and not a continuous sheet of ice interstratified with dung and humus. At (i) on the map (Fig. 2) a deep depression or basin at the top of the silt has been filled with alluvium and dung material. The fire of the slope here, three or four hundred feet back from the edge of the stream, was estimated to be one hundred and fifty-two.
The final destruction of the blocks as they eventually fall into the stream (with several seen half-submerged) has resulted in leaving a basin-like area of a hectare or more. Some of the detached blocks that stood in the center of the basin showed ice on both the front and back. The surface of the ice was also irregularly melted, owing to the more exposed position of part<.
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Maddren on the Porcupine and Old Crow rivers because the fossils did not become more on the crossings as we went up. The varying degrees of preservation of the specimens point to the conclusion that the source of supply is diverse rather than one large deposit. The following list shows the fauna of the area as represented by the scattered bones collected.
Although fewer fossils were collected along this stream, the prevailing conditions in terms of their occurrence were found to be similar in most respects to those observed on the Nowitna River. Back from the bluff is a level tableland, bounded on all sides, except that along the river, by low hills.
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EXPLORATION IN ALASKA IN I907 GILMORE 25 selected for distribution in deposits from which all other large frag-
The Pleistocene Fauna oe Alaska
Although a number of species have been described from the Pleistocene deposits of Alaska, they are largely based on fragmentary, and therefore rather unsatisfactory, specimens. Only a few of the large number of localities where fossils have been found provide well-defined specimens capable of specific determination, and although these vertebrates are interesting from the point of view of their general geographical distribution, they are relatively few in the interpretation of the local deposits. The forms were buried under such exceptional circumstances as to raise a question as to the exact age of the deposits in which they are often found, although they could not have been Pleistocene.
A glance at the list of species to be determined is sufficient to immediately demonstrate that they represent a typical Pleistocene fauna, some of which, such as the moose, caribou, musk ox, sheep, bear and beaver, have survived to the present day . To assist the student, a list is given here of the various genera and species hitherto found in Alaska, followed by a brief overview of each, with reference to the original description. Some additional information has been derived from a study of specimens in the vertebrate paleontological collection of the.
It has been reported to range from Florida, Texas, and Mexico southward and northward to Canada and Alaska. No complete specimens have yet been found in Alaska, although several good skulls and almost all parts of the skeleton are known from scattered but well-preserved bones. Nor have specimens been found in the flesh, as is so often reported through the columns of the newspapers and even by some of the magazines.
The size of the mammoth has been so grossly overestimated by the general public that a few comparisons may help correct some of these mistaken impressions. The length of this animal when alive is estimated at thirteen feet. The African elephant "Jumbo" was over ten feet tall, and other elephants have been recorded as tall as twelve feet; so, as this would indicate, there is not as much difference in size between the mammoth and living elephants as is often supposed.
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The revival of the mammoth with its long hair and curved tusks proved to be a favorite topic. This carving and etching is done by the Indians and Eskimos, many of whom become quite adept at this kind of work. The Skagway dealers source most of their tusks from the Klondike region, while the Nome dealers source the ivory they use from Eschscholtz Bay, Buckland.
34;Eskimos are in the habit of using the healthiest tusks for the formation of various objects; and the American fossil ivory has been for at least a century, and for a longer period of unknown duration, an article of traffic with the Tchutche of the opposite coast of Beering Straits; so that we can venture no calculation of the multitude of mammoths found buried in various icy cemeteries of the American coast of Beering Sea.". Dall1 tells of the acquisition of "in 1880 a deep ladle as large as a child's head, carved, handle and all, from a solid tusk of mammoth ivory by those people," referring here to the Eskimo. The writer also saw pieces of tusks formed into sledge runners, with holes at intervals by which they were fastened to the wooden framework. above here.
On the Yukon it was observed that the Indians used parts of tusks as weights to sink their salmon nets in sonic times. A description of this fossil ivory would not be complete without mentioning the blue phosphate of iron which is sometimes formed by the decomposition of the tusks and is used as a pigment by the Alaskan Eskimo. Sir John Richardson was the first to note in 1854 this phosphate2 (Vivianite) occurring between the plates of the exfoliated tusks.
The writer saw this blue spot in many of the bunches examined by him, and it was especially noticeable in those which had just been lifted from the ground. The same iron phosphate was found in bison metacarpal bones collected in the Nowitna River. Mastodon giganteas: "On burning the bone, the ash that remains is of a beautiful blue color, due to the presence of iron phosphate, which appears to have been formed from iron that had penetrated the bone from.
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EXPLORATION IN ALASKA IN I907 — GIEMORE 31 todon in the placer gravels of the Klondike region. Maddren 1
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EXPLORATION IN ALASKA IN 1907 G1LM0RE 33 This is the largest of the extinct bisons found in the deposits of
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BISON PRISCUS (?)
The horn label lists the location as Anvik, on the Yukon River, and the unhorn label lists the location as Anvik, on the Yukon River, but it is unlikely that the specimen was collected in the immediate vicinity of that location. It is more likely to come from some silt deposits along the Yukon twenty-five or thirty miles above Anvik. This animal is not currently known to occur west of the McKenzie River, but Pleistocene remains have been found in Alaska that have not been separated from this species.
This appears more probable, since a skull collected by the writer at Palisades, on the Yukon, in 1907, is described by Mr. Gidley as the type of a new species, and it may be that all the remains were previously considered O.
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EXPLORATION IN ALASKA IN IOX)/ — GILMORE 37 more likely, however, if referable at all to a living' form, it would
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