Résumé : The Vavilov ice cap was perforated in 1988 by a drilling which reached the underlying frozen sediments. In contrast to the overlying glacier ice, the basal ice is composed of different ice layers with a variable debris load. The stable-isotope composition of these layers shows δ values much lower than everywhere else in the core or in the Vavilov ice cap. This is most probably the signature of a remnant of Pleistocene ice which, for the first time, is shown to occur in the Russian Arctic.