286 PKOCEEDINGS OF THE CALIFORNIA 



tween the two halves of the jaw, the bone being over an inch in diameter in 

 several cases. 



A small cave exists, under an isolated rock, which stands on one of the raised 

 beaches on the middle portion of the island. The entrance is very low, but in- 

 side one can stand erect, the cave being about twenty feet in diameter, and of 

 an oval form, the highest point of the dome-shaped roof being about ten feet 

 above the floor. A good deal of water had penetrated through the crevices of 

 the rock, and the bones in this cave were very much decayed. I remarked re- 

 mains of seven skeletons, arranged around the edges of the cave, that at the 

 extremity of the cave furthest from the entrance being the skeleton of a 

 woman, and close to it the remains of an infant. The floor consisted of about 

 six inches of black mould, covering the usual shingle of the beaches. A num- 

 ber of ansfular fraoments of rock had fallen from above. No remains of ani- 

 mals were found here, and if there had been any wooden articles they had all 

 rotted away. 



Near one of the skeletons was found, heaped together, a number of stone 

 knives, a bone awl, and two fragments, one of pumice and the other of fine sand" 

 stone, with their edges and surfaces smoothed and squared evidently for the pur- 

 pose of dressing down the asperities of skins to be used for clothing. The 

 most interesting collection was found near the skeleton of the woman, and con- 

 sisted of two bone labrets* shaped like those now in use among the Thlinkets 

 and Botocudos. These are doubtless very ancient, as all traces of the usage 

 have long since passed away. There were besides, a lot of needles made of the 

 ■wing bones of birds, a needle case made of the humerus of some large bird, 

 closed at each end by a wooden stopper, bone awls, stone knives, a whetstone 

 of fine grained sand rock, and a little case of birch bark containing plumbago. 

 Neither the birch, the sandstone, nor the black slate, of which the knives were 

 made, nor the plumbago, exist on the island of Unalashka. 



As proved by other researches on the islands of Kadiak and Unga, the early 

 Aleuts were accustomed to preserve the remains of their more eminent dead by 

 removing the viscera, stuffing the body with dry grass and drying it. This was 

 placed in some dry cave, dressed as in life, ornamented with gay apparel, and 

 covered with wooden carvings, the most remarkable of which were masks of 

 large size, painted of different colors and ornamented with feathers, tufts of 

 hair and bristles from the deer. A very great variety of other carvings were 

 also placed in these caves,! and sometimes the bodies, placed in natural attitudes, 

 were covered entirely with carved wooden armor, or placed in a miniature 

 canoe or bidarka, armed as if hunting, or holding a paddle. Women were 

 represented as if sewing, dressing skins or nursing their infants ; old men as if 

 beating their drums, as they do during the winter-dances in Eskimo villages to 

 this day. 



But few of these remains exist in a well preserved condition, yet the extent 

 of the practice may be understood from the fact that over thirty different 

 masks, all more or less mutilated, were found in one cave at Unga. Any notes 

 in regard to them possess a certain interest, and may be worthy of preserva- 



* PI, 11, figs. 1-2. t K. n, figs. 3-5. 



