328 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



make this disposition of the bodies of the dead, the survivors 

 still inhabiting their share of the house as before. 



Another mode of burial detected among these prehistoric 

 people consisted in building a wall at the foot of an over- 

 hanging cliff until the rock above was reached, a bank of 

 earth or turf covering this wall on the outside. From the 

 cavity inside the debris was removed, and in this space, upon 

 layers of small sticks, the bodies were piled. In one place 

 he found six skeletons, one above another. 



Various bones of walrus, seals, sea-lions, bears, etc., togeth- 

 er with shells of edible mollusks, were found. 



Other articles of interest were bone implements, brought 

 to a sharp edge, and probably used for dressing skins ; and 

 certain knives of a dark slate stone, shaped like a chopping- 

 knife, spoons of carved bone, with a grooved handle, awls 

 made from the wing bones of birds, and various other objects 

 were secured. There was no ornamentation seen upon these 

 articles except straight lines. 



In all,Mr.Dall discovered the sites of seven villages on the 

 island of Amaknak alone, of which one or two only were 

 known to tradition. 



Articles were also met with, such as stone knives for dress- 

 ing skins; and near the skeleton of a woman were two bone 

 labrets, shaped like those now in use among the Thlinkets 

 and Botocudos. Besides these are a lot of needles of the 

 wing bones of birds, a needle-case made of the humerus of 

 some large bird, closed at the end by a wooden stopper, bone 

 awls, stone knives, a whetstone made of fine grained sand- 

 stone, and many other articles. 



Mr. Dall finds, from an examination of the skeletons, that 

 the ancient Aleuts were in the habit of removing the viscera 

 of the dead, and, after stuffing the body with dry grass and 

 then drying it, of placing it for preservation in a dry cave, 

 ornamented with gay apparel or covered with wooden carv- 

 ings. The most remarkable of these are masks of large size, 

 known as death-masks, painted in different colors and orna- 

 mented with feathers, tufts of hair, bristles, etc. Sometimes 

 the bodies, placed in natural attitudes, were covered entirely 

 with carved wooden armor, or placed in a miniature canoe, 

 armed as if hunting, or holding a paddle. Mr. Dall's collec- 

 tions are all deposited in the National Museum at Washing- 

 ton. Weekly Bulletin, San Francisco, November 8, 1872. 



