134 ANTHROPOLOGICAL, SURVEY IN ALASKA [eth. ann. 40 



ments or names have appeared. Yet there are respectable remnants 

 of the Eskimo, and, being better workers than the Indian and seem- 

 ingly more coherent, they manage to sustain themselves somewhat 

 better than he does. Their greatest handicap is disease. The bene- 

 ficial effect among them of the old Russian Mission has declined, but 

 there are a number of Government schools which have a good in- 

 fluence. They are more tractable, sensible, and in some respects 

 perhaps more able than the Indians. 



But there exists to-day no clear-cut demarcation, geographical, 

 cultural, or even physical, between the two people. Anvik, the last 

 Indian village downstream, is in every respect at least as much 

 Eskimo as Indian ; more or less Eskimolike physiognomies are seen 

 again and again among the Indians; and Indianlike features are com- 

 mon among the Eskimo. There has either been an old and consider- 

 able admixture on both sides, or there are some fundamental similari- 

 ties of the two groups ; perhaps both. 



Archeology of the Yukon 



Up to 1926 no archeological work had been done along the Yukon 

 or its tributaries, and barring a few isolated specimens there were no 

 archeological collections from these regions. 



The archeology of the river consists, (1) of the dead but formerly 

 known villages; (2) of older sites, " dead " and unknown before even 

 the Russians arrived; and (3) of random stone objects worked by 

 man that now and then are washed out from the river banks or are 

 found in working the ground. Except in details conditions are much 

 alike along the whole river and will best be dealt with as a whole. 



THE RANDOM SPECIMENS 



Wherever the beach of the river shows more or less of stones 

 that are not talus or just pebbles, there are generally found stones 

 worked by man. Such localities are scarce. The first exists between 

 Tanana (the village) and the mission above it. Here specimens are 

 found occasionally on the beach and occasionally in the soil of the 

 local gardens. Other such sites were located at Bonasila, below 

 Anvik, and in four places between Paimute and the Russian Mission. 

 A few are also present from Marshall seaward. 



An examination of the terrain adjacent to such parts of the beach 

 shows mostly, but not always, traces of an old settlement. 



The specimens consist of characteristic axes or adzes, stone scrap- 

 ers, hammers, stone knives (along the Eskimo part of the river), 

 tomahawk heads (probably), objects less well defined, and chips. 

 There may be semifossilized animal bones, and rarely a bit of char- 



