Sunday, October 2, 2011


"Each day I travel miles down this river, in the gravel bars, always searching for the fossil, for the great Woolly Mammoth Tusk. In shallow water I traverse to this point where I photographed this Mammoth tusk as I first spotted it.  This is how to find a Woolly Mammoth Tusk in Arctic Alaska."
"Very 'shallow' and clear river, and even on a cloudy day a Mammoth Tusk is easily spotted...in the river gravel, this particular 'Cow Tusk' Mammoth was in very excellent shape as far as the quality of the ivory...but at some point in it's history, it had been broken.  This is common for some tusks, as the tusk, when first exposed by erosion in the river bank, still remains partially frozen in the permafrost.  As 'Spring Breakup' the huge ice flows rushing downriver can intercept the tusk and 'snap' it off leaving part of the tusk remaining in the frozen wall of ice."