ARCHEOLOGICAL WORK IN ARCTIC CANADA COLLINS 525 



stone anteroom. The other houses varied somewhat in size and shape, 

 but had been constructed in the same manner. 



By 8 p. m., when we went back to the Nay a/oak for the night, we had 

 accumulated a rich store of artifacts, most of them from House 3. 

 These included harpoon heads of bone and ivory, some equipped with 

 stone and some with iron blades ; ivory knife handles also with stone 

 and iron blades; harpoon foreshafts and socket pieces, bone arrow- 

 heads, bolas weights for catching birds, lumps of iron pyrites for 

 making fire, lamps made of limestone slabs cemented together, iron- 

 bitted drills with nicely carved ivorj' handles, harness toggles, whet- 

 stones, ivory combs, and dish bottons made of whalebone. These 

 artifacts were all typically Sadlermiut in form, as were the houses 

 themselves and the curious mushroom-shaped stone cairns. The well- 

 preserved houses, some with roofs partly intact, could not have been 

 abandoned for many decades, and the presence of considerable quan- 

 tities of iron was a clear indication of white contact, probably with 

 the whalers. We had evidence, therefore, that Sadlermiut Eskimos 

 had lived here on the north coast of Coats Island, probably within 

 the past 50 years, though there had been no record of their existence. 



The next day we examined two house ruins on the north end of 

 Bencas Island. They, too, appeared quite recent but much less promis- 

 ing than those on Coats, so we returned and spent the rest of the day 

 completing the excavations we had begun there, after which we started 

 back to Native Point. 



The warm, calm weather that had favored us throughout the trip 

 continued on this last day and the Peterhead glided along over a 

 glassy sea, surrounded by floating masses of ice that shone like blue 

 crystal in the brilliant sunlight. We followed a course to the east 

 and north of Coats and Bencas Islands, where ice conditions were 

 favorable for hunting walrus and the big bearded seal, or ugchuk, 

 which the Eskimos prize for its tough skin as well as its meat. One 

 walrus and three ugchuk were shot by the Eskimos and their meat 

 and hides stowed away in the hold. 



After the Coats Island trip we resumed our work at Native Point, 

 remaining for another month until the Peterhead Ahpa (Guillemot), 

 under command of Pamiulik, came to take us back to Coral Harbour. 



We had realized soon after beginning work at Native Point in June 

 that another season's work would be necessary at this remarkably rich 

 and important old site. Accordingly we returned early in June of 

 1955, supported in part by a research grant from the American 

 Philosophical Society. The party consisted of Bill Taylor, Norman 

 Emerson, Jim Wright, and myself. As in the previous year we went 

 from Carol Harbour to Native Point by dog team, making the trip 

 in two days instead of one, a more comfortable arrangement that al- 



