NO.    I  ARCHEOLOGY    OF    ST.    LAWRENCE    ISLAND — COLLINS  2/3 
mouth  of  the  Kuskokwim  and  Bristol  Bay  (ohserved  by  the  present 
writer  at  Goodnews  Bay  and  Kiihikak).  The  lower  part  of  the  roof 
is  formed  of  sloping  timbers  and  the  walls  usually  of  upright  timbers ; 
in  these  two  respects  the  Koryak  house  is  more  similar  to  the  St. 
Lawrence  form  3  (p.  261)  than  to  those  further  south.  The  use  of 
dry  grass  in  the  walls  recalls  a  similar  use  in  the  inner  sleeping  room 
of  the  modern  St.  Lawrence  Island  skin  house  and  in  the  skin  houses 
of  King  Island  ;  grass  is  also  placed  between  the  timbers  and  the 
sod  covering  of  the  Kulukak  houses  (Bristol  Bay  district).  Another 
resemblance  to  southwest  Alaska,  although  not  strictly  architectural, 
is  the  wooden  lamp  rest  shown  in  Jochelson's  illustration  (pi.  37), 
which  is  practically  identical  with  the  lamp  rests  used  by  the  Nunivak 
Island  Eskimo.  The  Koryak  entrance  passage  is  shorter  and  wider 
than  those  found  in  Eskimo  houses.  The  opening  in  the  roof  of  the 
entrance  passage  corres^xinds  with  the  arrangement  found  in  Eskimo 
houses  from  Norton  Sovmd  to  Point  Barrow. 
Certain  other  features  of  the  Koryak  house  are  further  removed 
from  the  Alaskan  examples.  An  entrance  through  the  smoke  hole 
at  the  center  of  the  roof  is  not  known  in  Alaska  at  the  present  time, 
although  the  early  form  of  Aleutian  house  as  described  by  Cook  and 
other  early  explorers  was  entered  in  this  manner.  From  Norton 
Sound  northward  to  Point  Barrow  a  roof  entrance  is  the  normal 
one,  but  it  is  into  the  anteroom  and  never  through  the  smoke  hole 
or  sky  light  of  the  inner  room. 
Likewise,  there  is  little  in  the  interior  arrangements  of  the  Koryak 
house  to  remind  one  of  Alaska.  Instead  of  low  sleeping  platforms 
along  two  or  three  sides  as  in  southwest  x\laska,  or  a  single  high 
platform  at  the  rear  as  in  northern  Alaska,  the  Koryak  house  has  a 
single  low  platform  of  boards  at  the  rear  for  use  as  a  seat  and  as 
a  sleeping  place  for  visitors.  The  occupants  of  the  house  sleep  in 
rectangular  skin  tents  placed  along  the  side  walls,  similar  to  the  inner 
skin-covered  sleeping  rooms  of  the  Reindeer  Koryak,  the  Chukchee, 
and  Siberian  Eskimo,  and  in  recent  years  the  St.  Lawrence  Island 
Eskimo. 
The  exaggerated  form  of  the  Koryak  storm  roof  has  no  parallel 
elsewhere.  In  Eskimo  houses  there  is  no  superstructure  of  any  kind 
around  the  roof  opening,  but  neither  is  this  used  as  an  entrance. 
Holmberg  (1856,  p.  305)  describes  a  windbreak  around  the  smoke 
hole  on  a  Tlingit  house,  and  elsewhere  on  the  north  Pacific  coast 
sliding  roof  boards  were  sometimes  adjusted  in  such  a  manner  as  to 
deflect  the  wind  from  the  smoke  hole.  The  elaborate  funnel-shaped 
storm  roof  of  the  Koryak  should  no  doubt  be  regarded  as  a  local 
