76 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IX ALASKA [eth. ANN. 46 



ground level, and covered with other heavy boards. Some of the 

 burials are quite recent. Open three older ones. In two the re- 

 mains are too fresh yet, but from one secure a good female skeleton, 

 which I pack in a practically new heavy pail, thrown out probably 

 on the occasion of the last funeral. Then back, farther out, to avoid 

 notice, through swamps and over moss, and with a recurring wind- 

 driven drizzle against which my umbrella is but a weak protection. 



Reach home quite wet and a bit tired. Have to undress and, 

 wrapped in a blanket, dry my clothes and underwear about the 

 stove. 



Nothing further this day and evening — just wind and heavy low 

 clouds and rain. 



July 11- Up at 4.40. Weather has moderated. The Agnes left 

 at 4 and Mr. Williams's boat, due to favorable tide, must soon go 

 also. Breakfast, and all leave me before 6. 



Yesterday we brought up my needs — i. e.. collection of skeletal 

 material — to the few natives here, explaining to them everything, 

 and they do not object in the least. One of them, in fact, is to take 

 'me to-day to the more distant cemetery in a rowboat and help me 

 in my work. 



My man, after being sent for, comes at a little after 7. He is a 

 good-looking and well-behaving Eskimo of about 35. He brings a 

 good-sized tin rowboat — a whaling or navy boat probably; but "he 

 leaks a whole lot." The oarlocks are not fastened to the boat, the 

 plate of one is loose, and the oars are crudely homemade of drift- 

 wood and jneces of lumber fastened on with nails; in one the shaft 

 is crooked, while the other is much heavier. But we start, with the 

 sky still leaden and gray but no wind and calm water. I row 

 and he paddles; then he rows and I paddle We carry but the 

 camera, a little lunch, a heavier coat each, and a box and two bags 

 for the specimens. We pass a number of broods of little ducks, the 

 mother prancing before us until the young are in safety, and there 

 are several species of new kinds (to me) of water birds, some of 

 which fly right above us, examining us. In the distance we see a 

 big abandoned dredge, then a few empty log houses and " barabras " 

 on the bank of a stream and the edge of the tundra. This is Pas- 

 tolik. our destination. There is no one anywhere near, an ideal con- 

 dition for work, if work there'll be. And there will be — for almost 

 immediately upon landing I see. beginning at a few rods distance 

 on the tundra, a series (about 50) of old graves, in all grades of 

 mossiness and preservation. A few are, we later find, quite late, but 

 the majority are old — 60 years and over according to information 

 given by the natives of Kotlik. They do not. except perhaps the 

 few late ones, seem to belong to anyone still living. Yet " Pash- 



