A Reconnaissance of the Northwestern Portion of Seward Peninsula, Alaska Page: 27
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SURFICIAL DEPOSITS.
separates this upper plain from the lowland. On the lowland surface, away from
the margins, there are occasional gravel buttes, 50 feet or more in height, which
at a distance resemble haystacks. These are regarded as remnants of the upper
plain which have been left by erosion. At the edge of the upper plain transition
phases between the plateau and the isolated buttes were noted in a few instances.
On Quartz Creek the gravels of the upper plain are overlain by frozen silts,
in which bones of mammoth and horse have been found associated with the trunks
of large spruce trees. A spruce log, said by the miners to be 5 feet in diameter
and 80 feet long, was uncovered at this place.
Near the mouth of Turner Creek an isolated butte, known as Coal Hill, is
composed largely of black peat containing many pieces of bark and branches of
spruce trees. At the present time there is no spruce timber within the drainage
of the Kuzitrin River. In Coal Hill there are seams of white sand interbedded
with the peat, suggesting driftwood origin. However, the abundance of small
twigs and some spruce cones would seem to indicate that the material has not
drifted far. Associated with a spruce log which was found in the frozen silt on
Quartz Creek, and which was followed by a tunnel for a distance of 80 feet, a
part of the jaw and some teeth of a horse were found by Mr. A. H. Jose, who
gave them to the writer to be placed in the National Museum. The specimens
were submitted to Mr. F. A. Lucas, who reports in regard to them as follows:
" It is difficult-almost impossible-to identify horses from their teeth alone,
but the teeth collected by you resemble those of Equus complicates, which occurs
throughout a large portion of the United States east of the Rocky Mountains. The
extension of this species to Alaska would seem to give it an extraordinary range;
still, this would not be greater than that of the bison in modern times and the elephant
and mastodon in the Pleistocene. In the absence of more material this identification
should be considered as provisional."
Teeth and tusks of the mammoth (Elephas primigenius), together with bones
of other animals, are reported by the miners to be common in the placers along
Quartz Creek.
MAMMOTH REMAINS.
Elephant remains have been found in the silts of the Arctic coastal plain, in
the Agiapuk Valley, and in the Kuzitrin Valley. In the Kuzitrin Valley they were
associated with spruce logs and horse remains. Similar bones have been known
from other parts of Alaska for many years, the most noted locality being at
Elephant Point, on the south shore of Kotzebue Sound, about 50 miles northeast of
the Kuzitrin Basin. At this point the remains of the horse, elephant, and bison
were associated with those of the reindeer and musk ox.a This association of
a Dal, Bull. U. S. Geol. Survey No. 84,1892, p. 264.27
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Collier, Arthur J. A Reconnaissance of the Northwestern Portion of Seward Peninsula, Alaska, report, 1902; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc948662/m1/39/: accessed March 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.