168 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [eth. ann. 46 



mens of value collected by these men and others are in various 

 museums or in private hands in Fairbanks, along the west coast or in 

 Europe. 



My own small part in the archeology of Bering Sea and the north- 

 western coast of Alaska was, as already stated, mainly that of mak- 

 ing a survey of conditions. The object was to obtain a good general 

 view of what there was in the line of archeological sites and re- 

 mains, and thus help to lay a foundation for more organized re- 

 search in the future. In addition all possible effort was made to 

 collect and obtain specimens of distinct archeological value. Both of 

 these endeavors met with results of some importance. 



Old Sites in the Region of the Western Eskimo 



The shores of the Alaska rivers, the littoral parts of Alaska, the 

 more northern Bering Sea islands, and those portions of the Asiatic 

 coast that were once or are still occupied by the Eskimo, are strewn 

 with " dead " villages and old sites. Many of these dead villages or 

 sites are historic, having been abandoned, or very nearly so, since 

 the coming of the whites; some are older, in instances doubtless con- 

 siderably older. Collectively they offer a large, almost wholly vir- 

 ginal and highly important field to American archeology. They 

 may contain much of the secrets of Eskimo origin and of his cul- 

 tural, as well perhaps as physical, evolution. But these secrets are 

 not to be given up easily. They are held within a perpetually 

 frozen ground, which on one hand preserves everything, but on the 

 other will not yield its contents except to assiduous and prolonged 

 labor. 



Ruined or " dead " villages began to be encountered by the earliest 

 Russian and other explorers. Beechey (1826) tells us that between 

 approximately the latitude of Nelson Island and Point Barrow 

 (60° 34' to 71° 24' N.) they noticed 19 (Eskimo) villages, some 

 of which were very small and consisted only of a few huts, and 

 others appeared to have been deserted a long time. 30 



Hooper, in 1884, reports Eskimo ruins on the Asiatic side : 



"Near the extremity of the cape [Wankarem] we found the ruins 

 of houses similar to those now in use by the Innuits, half under- 

 ground, with frames of the bones of whales. Probably they were 

 former dwellings of Innuits, who for some reason crossed the 

 straits and attempted to establish themselves on the Siberian side. 

 These houses have been found by different travelers at many places 

 along this coast, and various causes assigned for the abandonment 

 of the attempt to settle here by the Innuits. * * * 



30 Beechey, P. W., Narrative of a Voyage to the Pacific and Bering's Strait. Phila., 

 1832, 474. 



