G. GENERAL NATURAL HISTORY AND ZOOLOGY. 327 



covered with feathers still attached by the shriveled muscles 

 and ligaments. This was found in a cave near Otago, into 

 which it, with other remains, had been washed. The color of 

 the barbs of the feathers is a chestnut red. The surface of 

 the skin is a dirty red-brown, roughened by elevated papillae. 

 Still other remains, found in 1871, had attached to the 

 bones parts of the bird's flesh, which was simply dried, and 

 could be easily separated into fibres. This, according to Dr. 

 Hector, proves that the moa must have existed at no very 

 remote period in the province of Otago. 13 A, October 15, 

 1872,391. 



PREHISTORIC REMAINS IN UNALASHKA. 



At a late meeting of the California Academy of Sciences a 

 communication was made by Mr. William II. Dali upon the 

 recent explorations made by him in the Amaknak Island, on 

 the shores of Captain's Bay, in Unalashka. While making 

 certain excavations for the location of a signal station on the 

 northern end of the Amaknak Island, he became satisfied, 

 from the nature of the materials brought out, that he had 

 found the site of an ancient village, although the oldest in- 

 habitants in the vicinity were entirely ignorant of the exist- 

 ence of any thing of the kind. 



He considers that the village must at least have antedated 

 the Russian discovery of the Aleutian Islands in 1760 ; and, 

 possibly, indeed, it may be very much older. A careful ex- 

 amination revealed to Mr. Dall the existence of three depres- 

 sions, each of which he considered to be the sites of the Aleu- 

 tian houses of the ancient fashion that is to say, half under- 

 ground, and of sufficient size to accommodate a number of 

 families, each having a compartment to itself. The houses 

 were entered by a notched stick through an aperture in the 

 middle of the roof, which afforded the only admittance to the 

 light. - 



On digging the hole for the signal-staff, two stone lamps 

 for burning seal-oil were found, made of soft porphyritic rock. 

 When used they were filled with dry sphagnum soaked in 

 seal-oil, which supplied both light and heat. A bone arrow- 

 head was also obtained. Several skeletons were also pro- 

 cured, which had been partially walled up in a compartment 

 of the house, it being the custom of the ancient Aleuts to 



