266 THJ^ ESKIMO ABOUT BERING STRAIT [eth.ann.18 



/ 

 were seen about the Chukchi camp, but there were many vertebrae and 

 other bones gathered from the ruins of the Eskimo houses. A man 

 was seen digging up a whale's jawbone from one of the old house sites, 

 and there were evidences that many others had been removed in the 

 same manner by the present inhabitants. 



During repeated visits made to these ruins I was impressed by 

 several circumstances which may serve to shed light on their age, as 

 shown by the following observations: 



Villages 1 and 2 are on a high knoll which rises like an island from 

 the low, flat shore, the sides sloping down to the narrow, pebble-cov- 

 ered neck of land (at 7) which separates a lagoon on one side from the 

 open sea on the other. Number 4 is on higher ground than the neck at 

 number 7, and is made up of sand and gravel. Number 5 is the present 

 seashore or water line. Number 6 is a well-marked ancient water line, 

 close to the edge of which was built the village marked 3. There is 

 a gravelly beach between the present and former water lines. Number 

 7 is a pebble-covered beach, probably two feet above extreme high water 

 line at present. 



It will be noticed that number 2 fronts directly upon 7 and is located 

 exactly as an Eskimo village would be placed if 7 were an open chan- 

 nel. The western Eskimo have an almost invariable custom of build- 

 ing their villages facing the water and parallel with the shore line. I 

 think it may safely be stated that none of these people ever placed a 

 village site in the relation to the sea that the site of number 2 now bears, 

 and it consequently follows, almost as a demonstrated fact, that village 

 number 2 was built and occupied when 7 was an open waterway, sepa- 

 ratiog the high knoll of Cape Wan karem from the mainland and thus 

 forming it into an island. 



I think number 2 marks the most ancient of the villages, for number 

 3 is so placed in regard to the ancient beach (6) that it could not have 

 been safely inhabited until the sea came to occupy nearly its present 

 water line. 1 should conclude that the land had been raised about 

 three feet from its ancient leveL at the time the water line stood at 6, 

 when village number 3 was occupied. The gradual upraising of the 

 coast must have made village number 2 untenable and caused the 

 people to change to number 3, that and number 1 probably being the 

 last villages occupied by the Eskimo, who had disappeared from this 

 part of the coast before the historical period. 



The severity of the Arctic climate on this bleak coast renders it very 

 difficult, if not impossible, to make an estimate of any value (basing cal- 

 culations upon the decay of perishable articles) as to the length of time 

 that has elapsed since an ancient site was occupied. If data were at 

 hand to estimate the rate of the rise of the land on the northwestern 

 Alaska and Siberian coasts, we would have a key to the approximate 

 age of villages 2 and 3 at Cape Wankarem, and probably to the age of 

 numerous other settlements along the same shore. 



