284 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CALIFORNIA 



of which had a sort of compartmeut to itself. The hardy Aleuts had nn fires 

 in their houses except for cooking, and this was often done outside. They de- 

 scended-on a notched stick, through an aperture in the middle of thereof, which 

 was also the only window. These depressions appeared to me to be the re- 

 mains of some of these houses, a supposition afterwards confirmed by our exca- 

 vations. 



In digging the hole for the signal, we got two stone lamps for burning seal 

 oil, about as deep as a saucer, and of an egg-ova! shape, exactly similar to some 

 I have seen in use among the present Eskimo of Bering Straits. They were 

 of soft porphyritic rock and still retained traces of the action of fire. When 

 used, they were filled with dried sphagnum soaked in seal oil, which gives out 

 considerable light and heat, as well as smoke. We also obtained a bone arrow- 

 head of the Eskimo pattern from this excavation. The next time that we visit- 

 ed the station, while busy in taking trigonometrical observations, I directed the 

 boat's crew to dig in the northwest c irner of what I supposed to be the remains 

 of a house or yourt. This depression was on the crest of the ridge facing east 

 and west, the longer sides about forty feet long and the ends about twenty 

 feet. 



The first thing noticed was a sort of wall of rough stones evidently obtained 

 from the neighboring beach, with here and there a whale-rib, in a perpendicular 

 position, which had probably assisted in supporting the roof Further excava- 

 tion for a couple of feet revealed a human skeleton in perfect preservation. The 

 body had been doubled up so as to bring the knees up to the chin. It was ly- 

 ing on the right side in a horizontal plane flicing the southeast. Two others 

 were afterwards discovered in an exactly similar position. They were about 

 three feet from the surface, but not so far from the inner wall of the house ; one 

 was the skeleton of a woman. A few rou^h flat stones were placed around and 

 under them, but no articles of use or ornament were with the skeletons. It is 

 a matter of record that the ancient Aleuts, when a person died in one of their 

 houses, built up the body in the compartment which had belonged to the person 

 when living, and continued to occupy the remainder of the yourt, as usual. 

 The position in which these skeletens were found, indicates that such was the 

 manner in which they had been interred. It is still a common practice among 

 tribes of the Orarian stock, to tie up the body of a dead person in the manner 

 just described. Further digging showed that a great part of the mound was 

 composed of materials foreign to the locality. These principally consisted of 

 bones of cetaceans, fur seal, [Cullorhinus ursiims) sea lion, [Eumctopias SteUeri) 

 and sea birds, principally ducks and gulls or petrels. There were also large ac- 

 cumulations of the shells of edible mollusks. among the most conspicuous of which 

 were the common mussel [Mijtilus edulifi), Saxklonnis squalidus, Desh., Tapes 

 stammea,Com\ and Modiola modiolus L. All the above are still living in these 

 seas, most of which are still found in Captain's Bay, and form a portion of the 

 food of the existing native population. The sea lion and walrus are no longer 

 found in Unalashka, and the fur seal but rarely. That they must have been very 

 abandant atone time is evident from the great accumulation of their bones in 



