34 ANTHEOPOLOGICAL STJEVEY IN ALASKA [eth. jnn. 46 



and left the rest on the beach, from where it was soon washed 

 away. Thus a group of burials, the only ones known of the once 

 good-sized Auk tribe, have been despoiled and their record lost to 

 science. And such a fate is, according to all accounts, rapidly 

 overtaking similar remains everywhere in southeastern Alaska. 



Rare stone lamp (?). — At the museum one of the first and most 

 interesting objects shown the writer by Father Kashevaroff was a 

 large, heavy, finely sculptured oblong bowl, made of hard, dark 

 crystalline stone, decorated in relief on the rim and with a squatting 

 stone figure, cut from the same piece, near one of the ends. The 

 bowl looks like a ceremonial lamp, though showing no trace of 

 oil or carbon. Subsequently four other bowls of this same re- 

 markable typ*e and workmanship were learned of, two, the best of 

 the lot, in the University Museum at Philadelphia; one in the 

 Museum of the American Indian, New York; and one, somewhat in- 

 ferior and of reddish stone, in the possession of Mr. Midler, the 

 trader at Kaltag, on the Yukon (later in that of Mr. Lynn Smith, 

 marshal at Fairbanks). The localities where the five remarkable 

 and high-grade specimens have been found range from the Kenai 

 Peninsula in southwestern Alaska to the lower Yukon. The Juneau 

 specimen comes from Fish Creek, near Kuik, Cook Inlet (see De- 

 scriptive Booklet Alaska Hist. Mus., Juneau. 1922, pp. 26, 27) ; that 

 in the Heye .Museum is from the same locality; the one in Philadel- 

 phia was found in the Kenai Peninsula; while that at Kaltag came 

 from an old Indian site on the Kaiuh slough of the Yukon. Locally, 

 there is much inclination to regard these specimens as Asiatic, es- 

 pecially Japanese, and a bronze Japanese Temple medal has been 

 found near that now at Juneau. On the other hand, a strong sug- 

 gestion of similarity to these dishes is presented by some undecorated 

 large stone lamps from Alaska, and by a class of pottery bowls with 

 a human figure perched on the rim at one end from some of the 

 Arkansas mounds, Mexico, and farther southward. (See Mason, 

 J. A. A remarkable stone lamp from Alaska. The Museum Jour., 

 Phila., 1928. 170-194.) 



Copper mash. — Shortly before leaving Juneau I became acquainted 

 with Mr. Robert Simpson, manager of the " Nugget " curio shop, and 

 found in his possession a number of interesting specimens made in 

 the past by the Tlingit Indians. An outstanding piece was an old 

 copper mask, which was purchased for the the National Musuem. 

 Mr. Simpson obtained it years ago from a native of Yakutat and 

 stored it with native furs and other articles of value. It originally 

 belonged to a shaman of the Yakutat tribe and was said to have been 

 worn by him in sacrificial slave killings, the shaman with the mask 

 representing some mythical being. It is an exceedingly good and rare 

 piece of native workmanship. 



