20 CAVE RELICS OF THE ALEUTIAN ISLANDS. . 



VIII. (17484.) Contained the remains of a small infant, of which the tissues 

 were reduced to dust. About the bones Avere traces of bird skins. Outside of 

 this were sea-otter skins, repeatedly doubled and lashed on with seal hide thongs. 

 Outside of this was a covering, apparently of fox skin, but the skin had become 

 so much injux'ed that only a mass of matted fur remained. This had been 

 secured with " round sennit" of four strands and braided sinew of three strands. 

 The outer case, if there had ever been any, had been removed. 



IX. (17483.) Contained the remains of an infant of two or three years of age, 

 and was originally very carefully prepared. The case consisted of a wooden 

 hoop forming the front, two parallel short sticks at the bottom, and two longer 

 ones at the back, severally lashed to the hoop at one of their extremities, and to a 

 short transverse stick (forming the posterior edge of the bottom of the frame) at 

 the other. Over the back, sides, and bottom of the frame was sewed hair-seal 

 skin, with the hair turned inward. The sewing was done with thread twisted of 

 two tine strands of sinew. The body had been wrapped carefully in matting, 

 covered with sea-otter skins, then packed, with twisted hanks of dry grass, firmly 

 into the case, and the front of the latter covered with a piece of exceedingly fine 

 matting. This was ornamented with longitudinal and transverse stripes similar 

 to those described in the large mummy case, and with white crosses worked into 

 the fabric at the intersections of the stripes. The lashings were of square and 

 round sennit. 



X. (17475.) Contained the well-preserved remains of a child about a year old, 

 wrapped in a piece of the material of which the gut shirts or kamlaykas are 

 made. This consists of the entrails of sea-lions or seals, washed, split, and dried 

 into a glistening kind of parchment. These strips are then sewed together with 

 double seams, and, usually, narrow strips of red parchment are sewed in the 

 alternate seams or parts of them by way of ornament. This forms a light, 

 translucent water-proof material, very tough when damp, but rather brittle if 

 very dry. 



Over the upper part of the body a fine, small mat was laid resembling 

 one already described, and like it, ornamented with the red feathers of the 

 Leucosticte^ and the light hair fi'om between the reindeer's hoofs. The head of 

 this specimen was gone, but the tissues were well preserved, and fi-om certain 

 impressions in the dry skin of the back, it would seem to have been laid on a 

 coarse piece of matting or basket work. It did not seem to have ever been tied 

 up, or, if it had, no traces of the envelope or lashings remained. 



The two skulls referred to had evidently been taken fi-om bodies of more 

 recent date than any of the others. This is confirmed by the state of the tissues 

 which did not resemble the others, in color or consistency, being fi'esh and firm 

 and still retaining somewhat the fresh color of recently dried animal matter. 

 The skull of one, (17477,) a female, bore other testimony to its later date, as the 



