A NATURALIST'S ADVENTURES 



Cormorants were rather common to-day. I heard a raven, 

 too, away off on one of the hills. I collected two long- 

 spurs and some lichens, a couple of wooden implements 

 and an imperfect skull of a young walrus. 



I saw a burial frame on slightly elevated ground. There 

 were four stumps, root ends up and the other ends im- 

 bedded in the ground, furnishing the necessary crotches 

 for supporting the cross and lengthwise pieces. They 

 were about two and a half feet long above ground. 



On these stumps were two cross pieces, which sup- 

 ported two sticks ten feet long, and between these outer 

 long sticks were eight other smaller round sticks which 

 formed the immediate rest of the corpse. There were a 

 foot board and a head board — each one inch thick, about 

 two feet long, and four inches wide. The head board was 

 supplemented by a head stick — part of a stump, about 

 three feet long, and one foot in diameter at its widest part. 

 At each end were seven or eight round sticks, from four 

 to six feet long, placed obliquely in the ground and leaning 

 inward toward the body at the top. On each side were 

 eighteen or twenty round limbs of three to six inches 

 diameter, placed obliquely and crossing one another at 

 the top; these sticks were from 8 to 14 feet long. One 

 additional stick on each side about the middle was oblique, 

 but did not meet its fellow at the top. 



The corpse rested on two deer skins placed hair side 

 to hair side, and was apparently covered with a deer skin. 

 It occupied a space of about three feet eight inches long 

 by fourteen inches wide, and lay on its back with the feet 

 drawn up and the knees in contact. The arms were 

 straight along. The head was towards Cape Lisburne and 

 the feet to the east; the head was slightly higher than the 

 feet. This case was of course open to animals and birds, 

 and the foxes, marmots and birds had left their traces. 

 All the wood in the structure was driftwood. 



A good-sized stream debouches here and a long tidal 

 lagoon is near it. Eskimo camps have been pitched here. 

 A very good sled was lying on the ground, the runners 

 bone shod. There are many flowers and myriads of 

 lichens. One of the men claimed to have seen a reindeer. 

 Brant have just begun to migrate southward — we have 



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