NO.    I  ARCHEOLOGY   OF    ST.    LAWRENCE   ISLAND — COLLINS  33 
extremity  of  the  gravel  plain  and  beyond  the  head  of  the  lake  is 
the  present  village  of  Gambell  (Sevuokok),  with  its  houses  arranged 
in  four  straggling  rows,  all  facing  westward  toward  the  sea  and  the 
Siberian  coast.  Twelve  of  the  houses  are  of  the  Siberian  Eskimo 
type,  with  wooden  walls  and  skin-covered  roof.  In  recent  years  this 
type  has  been  largely  replaced  by  lumber  houses,  of  which  there  are 
now  43,  in  addition  to  the  store  building,  school  house,  and  teacher's 
residence. 
Immediately  to  the  south  of  the  present  village  are  the  pits  of 
earlier  houses  of  wood  and  whale  bones,  some  of  which  were  occu- 
pied until  about  the  end  of  the  last  century.  Sunken  caches  or  meat 
cellars,  built  entirely  of  whale  bones,  are  well  preserved,  some,  in 
fact,  being  still  in  use.  Near  the  head  of  the  lake  the  ruins  of  this 
recently  abandoned  site  merge  imperceptibly  into  those  of  an  older 
and  more  extensive  site,  known  to  the  Eskimos  as  Seklowaghyaget, 
"  many  caches."  About  half  a  mile  to  the  northeast  a  grass-covered 
midden,  marking  the  site  of  another  old  village,  rises  conspicuously 
from  the  gravel  plain ;  this  site  the  Eskimos  call  levoghiyoq,  "  place 
of  the  walrus  ",  from  its  fancied  resemblance  to  a  herd  of  walrus 
lying  on  the  ice.  Some  200  yards  south  of  levoghiyoq,  and  at  the 
foot  of  the  plateau,  is  still  another  old  site  known  to  the  Eskimos  as 
Miyowagh,  "  the  climbing  up  place." 
A  striking  feature  of  the  gravel  plain  on  which  these  four  old 
sites  are  located  is  the  series  of  old  beach  lines — parallel  ridges  of 
gravel  piled  up  through  the  action  of  sea  ice,  waves,  and  currents — 
which  extend  westward  for  three-quarters  of  a  mile  from  the  base 
of  the  plateau  to  the  slight  elevation  occupied  by  the  present  village. 
From  the  top  of  the  plateau  these  ridges  stand  out  clearly,  becoming 
indistinct  only  toward  the  western  end  where  the  surface  irregulari- 
ties and  heavy  growth  of  grass  around  Seklowaghyaget  and  the  pres- 
ent village  obscure  the  original  conditions.  The  earlier  beach  lines — 
those  between  the  lake  and  levoghiyoq — curve  slightly,  but  run  in 
a  general  east  and  west  direction.  After  the  formation  of  the  first 
six  ridges  the  shoreline  changed ;  the  outer  or  western  ends  of  the 
older  ridges  were  cut  away,  leaving  a  beach  which  ran  obliquely  SW. 
by  W.  from  the  base  of  the  plateau.  Later,  however,  the  beach  lines 
straightened  out,  resuming  the  original  E.-W.  direction,  with  the 
result  that  a  clearly  defined  Y  was  left  at  the  center  of  the  gravel 
plain. 
Suggestive  evidence  of  the  relative  ages  of  the  several  abandoned 
villages  is  afforded  by  their  positions  in  relation  to  the  old  beach 
lines  and  the  present  beach,  in  view  of  the  universal  tendency  of  the 
