SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, 1 93 1 99 



edges of the deposits, besides a few trenches and holes in the more cen- 

 tral parts of the site, all of which resulted in 19 boxes of specimens. 

 The burial ground of the site, which may contain many skeletons, was 

 not discovered, and a vast amount of promising material remains to be 

 worked over. This must be the task of another season and under 

 better conditions so far as help is concerned. 



Besides the work at the site just mentioned, which in honor of 

 Mrs. Laura Jones I have called the " Jones Point Site," visits were 

 made to the important region of Karluk Village and River on the 

 northern shore of the island ; to Chiefs Point, at the head of the Uyak 

 Bay ; to Amok Island, deep in the bay ; and to the head of Larsen Bay. 

 At all these places were found large and important sites that call for 

 exploration. And many other sites were reported in different other 

 parts of the island, calling for a survey of the whole region. 



This summer's exploration and anthropometric observations have 

 resulted in clearing or settling the following hitherto obscure points : 



The natives of the Nushagak River and watershed are definitely all 

 Eskimo. They belong to the southwestern type of the race, are identi- 

 cal with the Kuskokwim and the neighboring Tundra Eskimo, and 

 are largely if not entirely derived from these. 



The Peninsula was a regular sieve for movements of people from 

 the north southward. There is a whole series of passes more or less 

 easily practicable for even primitive people. About every 30 to 40 

 miles from east to west a good sized " river " extends for various 

 distances from the north into the peninsula, ending in one or more 

 lakes from which generally smaller streams lead farther southward 

 to within a short distance of streams that run towards the Pacific. 

 People such as the Eskimo or the Indian could readily, it was seen, 

 have come along the western coasts, reached these passes and carried 

 their skin boats over the few rapids and portages, after which they 

 found themselves close to or within Shelikof Strait, facing the visible 

 Kodiak Island, or in Cook's Inlet ; and from both of these regions 

 the way towards the northwest coast and the rest of the continent 

 was open. This was plainly the most natural and the easiest way of 

 procedure for all comers from the Bering Sea and northwestern Asia. 

 The peopling of America therefore, as surmised before, took place not 

 through Alaska but along its western coasts and through the Peninsula. 



The now nearly extinct people of the eastern half of the Peninsula, 

 from probably beyond Port Moller to and including the Kvichak 

 River, though they uniformly called themselves "Aleuts," were found 

 in substance to be the same as those of the Nushagak, the Togiak, and 

 the Kuskokvvin regions, and are doubtless of the same old derivation. 



