IIO SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



were to be made at Barrow during the period — about a month — be- 

 tween the arrival of the Patterson and the departure of the last ship 

 late in August. However, ice conditions along the Arctic coast of 

 Alaska were the worst in many years, and the Patterson and the few- 

 other ships hound for Barrow were greatly delayed. The following 

 extracts from letters received from Mr. Ford will give some idea of 

 the conditions encountered : 



The 15th (of July) found us off Point Lay. Since then we have been waiting 

 for a favorable NE. wind to let us through but the southeasterlys have moved the 

 ice pack up to Wainwright. We have been back to Point Pay five times and to 

 Icy Cape so often that we are considering erasing the "of San Francisco" on 

 the stern and substituting " of Icy Cape." .... While still stuck below Wain- 

 wright I took an Eskimo crew and worked along the shore in an umiak as 

 far as possible and walked in carrying the mail. I went so that I might have 

 an opportunity to examine several sites along the coast, but found none that 

 were very old. At Wainwright the teacher showed me some harpoon heads 

 he had purchased from a native living at the old site of Nunakaak, 23 miles 

 up the coast, which led me to make an examination of the site. As the sea was 

 closed I went by dog team and got in four days of work before the ice opened and 

 the Patterson picked me up. The harpoon heads we found were mostly modern 

 and Thule, no Birnirks. 



Finally, after very slow progress through the ice pack, the Patter- 

 son reached Peard Bay, 50 miles below Barrow, and being unable to 

 proceed further, Mr. Ford left the ship in an umiak, taking with him 

 the mail for Barrow and the most necessary items of his equipment : 



No one could say when or if we would get through. The more experienced 

 the ice man the less he said. Captain Pedersen wanted to get the first-class mail 

 into Barrow ; I wanted to get to Barrow and also to see the coast, so as he 

 offered me his umiak, motor, and crew I took advantage of the first SE. wind — 

 which opens a narrow shore lead — to go ashore where I found a camp of Barrow 

 Eskimos just north of Skull Cliff. There I managed to scrape up 15 dogs and 

 an old broken down sled. The natives had to work several hours fixing the 

 sled with everything from baling wire to old Sunday neckties. We got over the 

 45 or 50 miles to Barrow with 200 pounds of mail and camp equipment in two 

 days — 15 hours travelling time. The people at Barrow were glad to get their 

 mail but seemed even more delighted with the two packages of cigarettes I 

 happened to have. I arrived on August 16 and started work at Birnirk the 

 next day ; worked until the 20th, finding Birnirk type harpoon heads in the top 

 layers of the mounds. The older sites up here are not continuous middens as on 

 St. Lawrence but each house is on a mound. These mounds are from 4 to 10 

 feet high, and dotted over a flat marshy place such as that occupied by Birnirk or 

 Nunakaak, they look very much like Indian mounds in the Southeast. 



As the ground was already freezing and there was little chance of 

 getting any work done before the close of the season, Mr. Ford com- 

 municated by radio with the Museum, requesting permission to stay at 



