264 THE ESKIMO ABOUT BERING STRAIT [BTH.ANS.IS 



kasbim and of several bouses. Tbe St Micbael people told rne tbat tbis 

 place was destroyed, long before tbe Kussians came, by a war party from 

 below the Yukon mouth. The sea has encroached upon the islet until 

 a portion of tbe land formerly occupied by the village has been washed 

 away. The permanently frozen soil at this place stopped us at the 

 depth of about two feet. Here, and at another ancient Unalit village 

 site which was examined superficially, we found specimens of bone and 

 ivory carvings which were very ancient, as many of them crumbled to 

 pieces on being exposed. 



Along the lower Yukon are many indications of villages destroyed 

 by war parties. According to the old men these parties came from 

 Askiuuk and Kushunuk, near the Kuskokwim, as there was almost 

 constant warfare between the people of these two sections before the 

 advent of the Russians. 



Both the fur traders and the Eskimo claim that there are a large 

 number of house sites on the left bank of the Yukon, a few miles below 

 Ikogmut. This is the village that the Yukon Eskimo say had 35 

 kashims, and there are many tales relating to the period when it was 

 occupied. At the time of my Yukon trips this site was heavily cov 

 ered with snow, and I could not see it; but it would undoubtedly well 

 repay thorough excavation during the summer mouths. One of the 

 traditions is that this village was built by people from Bristol bay, 

 joined by others from Nuuivak island and Kushunuk. One informant 

 said that a portion of this village was occupied up to 1848, when the 

 last inhabitants died of smallpox, but whether or not this is true I was 

 unable to learn. 



Another informant told me that near the entrance of Goodnews bay, 

 near the mouth of the Kuskokwim, there is a circular pit about 75 feet 

 in diameter, marking the former site of a very large kashira. A lew 

 miles south of Shaktolik, near the head of Norton sound, I learned of the 

 existence of a large village site. Both the Eskimo and the fur traders 

 who told me of this said that the houses had been those of Shaktolik 

 people, and that some of them must have been connected by under 

 ground passageways, judging from the ditch-like depressions from one 

 to the other along the surface of the ground. The Shaktolik men who 

 told me this said that there were many other old village sites about 

 there and that they were once inhabited by a race of very small people 

 who have all disappeared. 



From the Malemut of Kotzebue sound and adjacent region I learned 

 that there are many old village sites in that district. Many of these 

 places were destroyed by war parties of Tinne from the interior, accord 

 ing to the traditions of the present inhabitants. 



On Elephant point, at the head of Kotzebue sound, 1 saw the site of 

 an old village, with about fifteen. pits marking the locations of the 

 houses. The pits sloped toward the center and showed by their out 

 lines that the houses had been small and roughly circular, with a short 



