264 THE ESKIMO ABOUT BERING STRAIT (ETH. ANN. 18 
‘kashim and of several houses. The St Michael people told me that this 
place was destroyed, long before the Russians came, by a war party from 
below the Yukon mouth. The sea has encroached upon the islet until 
a portion of the land formerly occupied by the village has been washed 
away. The permanently frozen soil at this place stopped us at the 
depth of about two feet. Here, and at another ancient Unalit village 
site which was examined superficially, we found specimens of bone and 
ivory carvings which were very ancient, as many of them crumbled to 
pieces on being exposed. 
Along the lower Yukon are many indications of villages destroyed 
by war parties. According to the old men these parties came from 
Askinuk and Kushunuk, near the Kuskokwim, as there was almost 
constant warfare between the people of these two sections before the 
advent of the Russians. 
Both the fur traders and the Eskimo claim that there are a large 
number of house sites on the left bank of the Yukon, a few miles below 
Ikogmut. This is the village that the Yukon Eskimo say had 35 
kashims, and there are many tales relating to the period when it was 
occupied. At the time of my Yukon trips this site was heavily cov- 
ered with snow, and I could not see it; but it would undoubtedly well 
repay thorough excavation during the summer months. One of the 
traditions is that this village was built by people from Bristol bay, 
joined by others from Nunivak island and Kushunuk. One informant 
said that a portion of this village was occupied up to 1848, when the 
last inhabitants died of smallpox, but whether or not this is true I was 
unable to learn. 
Another informant told me that near the entrance of Goodnews bay, 
near the mouth of the Kuskokwim, there is a circular pit about 75 feet 
in diameter, marking the former site of a very large kashim. A few 
miles south of Shaktolik, near the head of Norton sound, I learned of the 
existence of a large village site. Both the Eskimo and the fur traders 
who told me of this said that the houses had been those of Shaktolik 
people, and that some of them must have been connected by under- 
ground passageways, judging from the ditch-like depressions from one 
to the other along the surface of the ground. The Shaktolik men who 
told me this said that there were many other old village sites about 
there and that they were once inhabited by a race of very small people 
who have all disappeared. 
From the Malemut of Kotzebue sound and adjacent region I learned 
that there are many old village sites in that district. Many of these 
places were destroyed by war parties of Tinné from the interior, accord- 
ing to the traditions of the present inhabitants. 
On Elephant point, at the head of Kotzebue sound, I saw the site of 
an old village, with about fifteen pits marking the locations of the 
houses. The pits sloped toward the center and showed by their out- 
lines that the houses had been small and roughly circular, with a short 
