484 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 195 



cover. The excavations attempted amounted to no more than a mere 

 scratching of the surface through about 6 inches of moist, thawed earth 

 to the solid permafrost. A resume of the literature reveals that this 

 permafrost is more than just an impediment to archeological work 

 in the Arctic (Muller, 1947). Along the hill slopes, in lieu of normal 

 soil erosion, the majority of the soil movements are confined to phe- 

 nomena which include creeping of the soil and solifluction (ibid., p. 

 72). Solifluction is a molasseslike, slow, downslope movement of 

 water and saturated masses of surface ground. To this may be added 

 also a mud flow which usually has a higher content of water and moves 

 more rapidly. Organic deposition of matter is extremely deficient, 

 especially on the lookout stations, as has been intimated. There are 

 no known volcanic deposits in this region ; hence there is no deposition 

 of soil by volcanic means. 



The mountains are quite rugged, and the only places suitable for 

 archeological research are near the streams and passes of the val- 

 leys. Although limestone deposits are known in the mountains, sur- 

 prisingly enough no solution caverns and only a few small "joint" 

 caves, affording shelter, were observed in the Brooks Range by Ar- 

 thur Bowsher, geologist of the United States National Museum. These 

 mountains were thought to have been impassable during the Pleisto- 

 cene, since the valleys, at least, are presumed to have been covered with 

 ice at that time. Therefore, although evidence of later archeological 

 material may be found in the passes, it is presumed that any finds of 

 man's morphological remains or artifacts older than the last glacial 

 stage will not be made in the mountain province. 



Since I had to keep on the schedule of the Survey's movements, I 

 could not undertake a side trip to the site where the Folsom point had 

 been found by the 1947 field party, on Folsom Point Syncline, near the 

 Utukok River. The closest approach was some 25 miles distant. A 

 long synclinal ridge led to the site. The Folsom Point ridge, traceable 

 on recent Geological Survey maps, is nearly 22 miles long and is situ- 

 ated at an elevation about 2,000 feet above mean sea level. Edward G. 

 Sable, a member of the party and the actual finder of the Folsom point, 

 said that he had discovered the artifact high on the ridge top, lying on 

 the bare soil and rocks unaccompanied by any other artifacts. He 

 noted no chipping stations or other archeological sites in the immedi- 

 ate neighborhood. Therefore, it was comforting to know that this was 

 an isolated find, and presumably little would be gained by revisiting 

 the site. It has been suggested that the long east-west trending ridges 

 may even have been avenues of migration (Thompson, 1948, p. 64) . It 

 is possible that they could have attracted the attention of peoples mov- 

 ing inland from the flatter coastal plain. The tops of the ridges are 

 considerably easier to walk upon, since they are bare of tundra, and 

 are rather easy landmarks to follow. Tundra, composed of lichens, 



