hedliCka] ARCHEOLOGY OF WESTERN ESKIMO 171 



informant said that a portion of this village was occupied up to 

 1848, when the last inhabitant died of smallpox, but whether or not 

 this is true I was unable to learn. 



" Another informant told me that near the entrance of Goodnews 

 Bay, near the mouth of the Kuskokwim, there is a circular pit about 

 75 feet in diameter, marking the former site of a very large kashim. 

 A few miles south of Shaktolik, near the head of Norton Sound, I 

 learned of the existence of a large village site. Both the Eskimo 

 and the fur traders who told me of this said that the houses had been 

 those of Shaktolik people, and that some of them must have been 

 connected by underground passageways, judging from the ditchlike 

 depressions from one to the other along the surface of the ground. 

 The Shaktolik men who told me this said that there were many other 

 old village sites about there and that they were once inhabited by a 

 race of very small people who have all disappeared. 



"From the Malemut of Kotzebue Sound and adjacent region I 

 learned that there are many old village sites in that district. Many 

 of these places were destroyed by war parties of Tinne from the 

 interior, according to the traditions of the present inhabitants. 



" On Elephant Point, at the head of the Kotzebue Sound, I saw 

 the site of an old village, with about 15 pits marking the locations 

 of the houses. The pits sloped toward the center and showed by their 

 outlines that the houses had been small and roughly circular, with a 

 short passageway leading into them, the entire structure having been 

 partly underground. 



" The Eskimo of East Cape, Siberia, said that there were man}' 

 old village sites along the coast in that vicinity. These houses had 

 stone foundations, many of which are still in place. There is a large 

 ruined village of this kind near the one still occupied on the cape. 



" On the extreme point of Cape Wankarem, and at its greatest 

 elevation, just above the present camp of the Reindeer Chukchi, a 

 series of three sites of old Eskimo villages were found." 



To this, on pages 269 et seq., Nelson adds an account of the villages 

 that " died " on St. Lawrence Island during the winter of 1879-80. 

 Capt. C. L. Hooper, in the "Cruise of the Corwin in 1881, Notes 

 and Observations " (published in Washington, 1884, p. 100) gives the 

 date as 1878-79, and adds further details about these villages. 



Present Location of Archeological Sites 



Through personal visits, wherever possible, and through informa- 

 tion from all available sources, an effort was made to locate and 

 learn the character of as many of the old sites as could be traced. In 

 this endeavor I was aided by many whose services are hereby grate- 

 fully acknowledged. Especial thanks are due to Captain Cochran 



