﻿174 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 78 



that before adopted. Instead of stripping from the top, the exca- 

 vation was carried forward with nearly perpendicular walls so that the 

 formation could be studied in diagrammatic cross-section at all points. 

 In this way it was clearly observed : first, that the bone-bearing layer 

 was everywhere plainly distinguishable from the overlying strata ; 

 second, that the separation plane was uneven, showing there had been 

 an erosional interval between the two periods of deposition ; and third, 

 that the portion of the bone-bearing layer following the undulations of 

 the separation plane presented a uniformly darker color on top which 

 faded gradually into the light color of the formation below. This was 

 exactly the condition observed at the spot where the human skull was 

 taken, hence it may now be confidently stated that its original burial 

 place while near the top of this layer was definitely within it. It is 

 unfortunate that the investigation at Melbourne could not be con- 

 tinued. The field is a promising one and doubtless would amply repay 

 further exploration, 



James W. Gidley. 



ARCHEOLOGICAL AND ETHNOLOGICAL STUDIES IN 

 SOUTHEAST ALASKA 



During April and May, 1926, H. W. Krieger, curator of ethnology 

 in the U. S. National Museum was detailed to the Bureau of American 

 Ethnology for the purpose of inspecting native houses and totem 

 poles at the National Monument of Old Kasaan, with a view to their 

 preservation. The National Monument of Old Kasaan was originally 

 established by Executive order in 1907 amplified by the Presidential 

 Proclamation of October 25, 1916. The monument thus established 

 contains the abandoned Haida Indian village of Kas-a-an and the 

 surounding forested area containing about 40 acres. It fronts on 

 Skaul arm of Kasaan Bay, on the east coast of Prince of Wales 

 Island, and is about 40 miles by motor boat from Ketchikan, the 

 largest town and the first port of call in Alaska for American steamers 

 out of Seattle. 



Kasaan, like most of the native villages of southeast Alaska, is 

 abandoned, its former occupants having moved to fish-cannery towns 

 or to towns like Ketchikan where a number of occupations and indus- 

 tries await them. Indians of Alaska have adopted white man's ways, 

 and have never been wards of the nation like the Indians assembled 

 on reservations within the United States. In accepting the new, how- 

 ever, they have forgotten or learned to disregard their own culture 

 with its splendid claim to distinction as possessing the most unique 

 and realistic examples of plastic sculpture of all aboriginal America. 



