ARCHEOLOGY AND ECOLOGY OF ALASKA — SOLECKI 477 



for the failure of tlie Brooks Eaiige glaciers to cover the Arctic coast 

 was this deficiency of precipitation. The area between the Brooks 

 Range and the Alaska Range, which extends inland from the Bering 

 Sea, was similarly deficient in precipitation (Flint, 1948, p. 222). 



As we know, the Arctic winters are long and the summers short, 

 with a correspondingly short period of thaw ; hence, only the upper 

 ground surfaces soften in summer. The frigid temperature plus the 

 aridity permit the preservation of organic matter for deceptively long 

 time spans. Physiographic changes and over-all climate changes are 

 also very slow in the Arctic. 



Of the three provinces, the foothills area affords the best routes for 

 overland travel parallel to the mountains in all seasons. Stream 

 drainages, tributaries of the main north-flowing rivers with partial 

 exception of the Colville, are oriented on the east-west alinement of 

 the ridges. The coastal plain is difficult to negotiate overland during 

 summer because of the tundra lakes and bogs. The mountains are 

 also natural barriers, traversable only at several of the passes. Viewed 

 today, the north slope of Alaska presents a barren, dun-colored aspect, 

 for it is north of the timber line. There are small stands of stunted 

 willow near the water courses. The drear}^ landscape is relieved in 

 summer by an almost spontaneous growth of colorful flowers that 

 carpet the surface. Lichens and mosses clinging to rocks in the hills 

 present splotches of bright hue. 



The major drainage systems of this region, again with partial 

 exception of the Colville, flow northward, controlled by the slope from 

 the mountains to the coast. They are called consequent streams. The 

 Colville, the largest river in the north, flows eastward at its upper part 

 where it is controlled by a weak bed of rocks. It changes course and 

 flows northward to the sea at its lower reaches. These rivers flow in 

 broad valleys in the foothills section, cutting across ridges to the lower 

 coastal plain where the gradient drops and they become braided and 

 sluggish. It is these same rivers that furnished the highway for the 

 inland Eskimos. They boated down the rivers in spring after the ice 

 break-up, returning in fall to their winter homes in the hills and moun- 

 tains before the rivers froze over. The Colville River was especially 

 important as a connecting trade and travel route between Kotzebue 

 on Kotzebue Sound and the mouth of the Colville. One of the several 

 good passes habitually used was Howard Pass, joining the headwaters 

 of the Etiviluk River, an upper branch of the Colville, and Noatak 

 River. The latter, flowing west and southward on the other side of the 

 Brooks Range, empties near Kotzebue. 



Although the short cuts through the mountains were excellent for 

 the use of Eskimos and their immediate prehistoric predecessors, it is 

 unlikely that they were used by Early Man. The mountain valleys 

 were probably still covered by glacial ice at the time of his entry. On 



