106 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [bth.anh.46 



what tough, otherwise not much different from reindeer or even beef. 

 If better prepared (especially roasted on coals) would be quite 

 palatable. 



Yesterday there were several flurries of snow, none to-day, but air 

 cold enough to make a long stay outside disagreeable. 



Toward evening Captain announces that he is going to try to reach 

 Barrow, about 80 miles northeastward, and soon after supper we 

 start. He also tells me we may be there at or not long after mid- 

 night and so to be ready, for the boat will be unable to stop more 

 than an hour or two. As the only place where a few skulls and 

 bones may be found is about D/2 miles outside of the village and it 

 takes a good 30 minutes to make a mile over the tundras, I shall 

 have to rush once more. But I am promised a man to help me. 



August 2. With clothes on, and anticipation, slept poorly. Ship 

 stopped about 1 a. m. and I imagined we were off Barrow. But on 

 rising find that we have gone on and then backward again, encoun- 

 tering ever more ice. It is cold and foggy outside, and cloudy and 

 gloomy. We now meander among the big floes, now and then bump 

 into one until the whole ship heaves and shivers, and occasionally 

 the siren, stop for a while to diminish the shock. We are now on 

 way back to Wainwright. If we only could go as far back as Point 

 Hope, where there is so much of interest. I might have stayed over, 

 but would surely have reproached myself for missing the remainder 

 of the coast. 



Back off Wainwright. cold, windy, sky gloomy as usual. 



Late in the afternoon go with the trader to land, to visit the site 

 of an older village, about a mile down the shore. Walk along the 

 beach. Cold wind, raincoat stiffens. Walrus meat and blubber 

 chunks (slabs, etc.) along the beach at several places, also a large 

 skinned seal. Traces, as one nears the village, of worked stones, but 

 all waterworn and no finished objects. At one place in bank, about 

 3 feet deep, a layer of clear blue ice about 20 inches thick — strangely 

 pure ice, not frozen earth or even inclusion of any dirt or gravel. 



Village site small, along the edge of the low (about 10 feet) bluff. 

 Count remains of eight dwellings. Some animal bones, but nothing 

 else on surface or in vicinity. Burial place not seen. Companion 

 says there is nothing. 



A simple supper at the trader's, prepared by his Eskimo wife, and 

 good company: Doctor Smith, of the Geological Survey, with two of 

 his men; Jim Allen, the storekeeper, a big, good-hearted fellow; 

 La Voy. the big, active movie man, who knows all the gossip and 

 enjoys telling it with embellishment ; and two men of the trader. 

 Menu : Soup, boiled reindeer meat, underdone biscuits, coffee. 



After supper go to a meeting at the school, where our missionary, 

 Doctor Goodman, is to talk to the natives. Large schoolroom 



