144 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



are found ; they seem to be always later than those of the Old Bering 

 Sea culture. From present indications it appears probable that careful 

 excavations around Point Barrow would reveal the best evidence of 

 the exact relationship between these two old Eskimo cultures. Equally 

 important is the question of the relation of the Old Bering Sea cul- 

 ture to the existing Eskimo groups between Bristol Bay and the Yukon 

 and even to the Indians of the Northwest Coast, such as the Tlingit 

 and Haida. Then there remains the most important problem of all — 

 the origin of the Old Bering Sea culture itself ; but this, as well as the 

 other problems of Eskimo archeology can only be solved by further 

 excavations. 



While the Northland was staying at Unalaska for a few clays in 

 June and again in November we were able to make limited excava- 

 tions at three ancient Aleutian sites on Amaknak Island. The midden 

 deposits were of considerable size, ranging in depth from 5 to 15 

 feet. They were also easy to excavate, for unlike those on St. Lawrence 

 Island, they were not frozen. However, compared with the Eskimo 

 middens, they yielded but few artifacts, none of which were compar- 

 able either in art or craftsmanship with ancient Eskimo specimens. 

 The prehistoric Aleuts seem to have possessed a rather simple mate- 

 rial culture which continued with little or no change during the cen- 

 turies that they inhabited these barren and inhospitable islands. 



Fifty skulls and skeletons were collected at an old Eskimo site 

 near Rocky Point, on Norton Sound, but probably none were over 100 

 years old. Twenty King Island Eskimos at Nome were measured 

 and 60 St. Lawrence Islanders at Gambell ; on the latter group hand 

 and foot prints were also taken. 



The most interesting feature of the season's work, aside from the 

 archeological finds at Gambell, was the discovery of a fossil-bearing 

 coal and shale outcrop of Tertiary age, rich with the remains of 

 sequoia, poplar, and other plants. Prof. R. W. Chaney, of the Carnegie 

 Institution of Washington, is responsible for the discovery, for it 

 was he who requested that I try to locate such fossils. The existence 

 of fossils of sequoia and other trees on the now barren St. Lawrence 

 Island is regarded by Professor Chaney as affording conclusive evi- 

 dence of a former land connection between Asia and America ; for 

 sequoia, which at the present time are restricted to California, have 

 been found as fossils in Southeast Alaska, Northeastern Siberia and 

 Mongolia. Paleontologists have long assumed that there must have 

 existed a land bridge between Asia and America in the region of 

 Bering Strait, in Tertiary times, for in no other way could the simi- 

 larity of the fauna and flora of the two continents be explained. 



