CAVE RELICS OF THE ALEUTIAN ISLANDS. 21 



frontal and nasal bones were much affected by a species of caries, evidently the 

 result of syphilitic or scrofulous disease. If the former, it was the result of 

 intercourse with the Russians, and the individual may have belonged to a period 

 twenty or thirty years later than those previously described. The hair, origi 

 nally black, had faded to a light brown, and was very short. 



The other skull (17476) was that of a male, and chiefly remarkable for its 

 great breadth as compared with its height, and for possessing, in addition to the 

 usual coronal ridge, a well-marked transverse ridge across the skull from side to 

 side, somewhat behind the ears. Some of the hair still remained, and was long 

 and black. The teeth of both were much worn down, and in the female skull 

 the anterior molars had been worn until the nerve cavity was fully exposed, and 

 signs of ulccration were exhibited about the fangs of the two first molar teeth. 

 The cylindrical shape and soft character of the enamel, which rapidly wears 

 away, is a characteristic of the Innuit teeth. It is due, not so much to the 

 mixture of gritty substances with the food, which does not often occur, as to the 

 peculiar character of the teeth themselves, and the great use that is made of 

 them by most of the Eskimo in chewing sinew, seal-skin line, &c., to prepare 

 them for various purposes. In skinning an animal, stretching or hauling taut a 

 line, or twisting or braiding a cord, the Eskimo takes it in his teeth. 



With these human remains were various articles, which were also forwarded, 

 and are here briefly catalogued. 



1. (17443.) A pushing stick with a crutch handle, carved and painted red on 

 the top of the handle and on a broad groove around it. On the side of this was 

 engraved an oval, with short lines perpendicular to the circumference, extending 

 outward from it. This was probably a mark of ownership, such as most natives 

 put on their weapons and utensils. A string of two-thread twisted sinew was 

 pegged into a hole in the border of the oval to secure the implement to the 

 bidarka at sea. 



2. (17444.) A portion of the keel of a bidarka. 



3. (17454-17459.) Two small and four large kantags of the usual character, 

 with internally concave bottoms and perpendicular sides, bent into an oval or 

 rounded rectangular shape by steaming, and secured by wooden pegs. Also one 

 high square kantag, (17453,) with very thin light sides, such as the natives use 

 for picking berries in. These arc precisely such as the continental Innuit use 

 to-day, except where the traders have introduced tin pails and dishes. They 

 were probably derived from the mainland, and obtained by barter, as the inhabi 

 tants of the Island of St. Lawrence and the Diomedes obtain their kantags from 

 the continental Innuit at the present day. 



4. (17445.) Remains of a common wooden visor, such as the Innuit use at 

 present to protect their eyes from the glare of the sun on the water when in their 



