184 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [etb. A*h. 40 



As a rule the wood of burials older than about 80 years was found 

 fully decayed with the bones secondarily buried. Of earlier burials 

 there is generally no trace on the surface, but on excavation skeletal 

 remains are found at various depths below the surface. These char- 

 acteristic self-burials, or rather tundra burials, may prove of much 

 importance to anthropology in the future. As outlined before (see 

 Narrative, pp. 77, 79) the process is a decay of the wood ; the sagging 

 down of the bones, covered more or less by the decayed material; an 

 encroachment of moss or other vegetation on the little mound thus 

 produced; and gradual accumulation through wind or water carried 

 materials of more covering over the bones, until the mound disap- 

 pears and the remains, generally still in good condition, are buried 

 as if intentionally inhumed. 



The Eskimo everywhere were found to be exceedingly sensible 

 about the older, and even recent, skeletal remains, and assisted readily 

 in their collection, as well as in excavation, offering thus the best 

 possible conditions for anthropological and archeological work in 

 these regions. 



The notes, charts, and a detailed list of the sites and villages fol- 

 low. In numerous cases it was found impossible to say whether a 

 site was completely " dead " or still occasionally partly occupied, so 

 that distinctive markings had to be abandoned. 



Prixce William Sound, Kodiak Island, Alaska Peninsula 



Very largely still a terra incognita for anthropology and arche- 

 ology. Partly occupied by Indians (Prince William Sound, Kodiak 

 Island?), partly by mix-blood Aleut (parts of Peninsula, and of 

 Kodiak), partly by Eskimo. There is but little skeletal or arche- 

 ological material from the whole extensive territory. 



kodiak island and neighborhood 



[Fig. 17] 



1. Litnik (probably the Russian "Lietnik," the name for a sum- 

 mer village). — Indian village on Afognak Bay, Afognak Island. 

 This name is found on a map made by the Fish Commission in 1889. 

 Apparently it is the Afognak of other maps (G. D. A.). 40 



2. Afognak. — On the southwestern part of Afognak Island. Vil- 

 lage or row of scattered dwellings on shore of Afognak Bay, in 

 southwestern part of Afognak Island. Population in 1890, 409. 

 (G. D. A.) According to AValker, "an important, occupied native 



10 G. D. A. : Geographic Dictionary of Alaska, by Marcus Baker, L T . S. Geol. Surv., Wash- 

 ington, 1902. 



