210 ANTHROPOLOGICAL, SURVEY IN ALASKA [bth. ann. 46 



less than 1,000 of the population died of famine (Hooper), three of 

 the villages becoming completely depopulated and a fourth nearly so. 

 The Punuk Island village may have become extinct about the same 

 time. 



To-day there are on the St. Lawrence Island but two living settle- 

 ments, the main one, now known as Gambell, at the old site of Chi- 

 bukak on the northwestern cape, and the other, Savonga, about 40 

 miles east of it, near Cape North. 



A number of the old sites on this island, and also that on one of the 

 Punuks, indicate a long occupation, antedating by far the advent 

 of the Russians. The accumulations rise in some places to imposing 

 heaps or ridges. Their frozen contents yield quantities of fossil 

 ivory, all of which shows the work of man, and among them occur 

 specimens with fine curvilinear designs and of high scientific as well 

 as artistic value. 



Through Nelson in 1881 and R. D. Moore in 1912 the Smithsonian 

 Institution has acquired a large quantity of human skeletal material 

 from the main island, and there is now (1928) an expedition of the 

 Institution under Collins on the Punuk as well as the St. Lawrence 

 exploring some of the principal ruins. 



THE DIOMEDE ISLANDS AND THE ASIATIC COAST 

 [Figs. 27 and 28] 



The smaller or American Diomede, though a very inhospitable 

 place, supports, and that evidently since long, a small Eskimo vil- 

 lage of stone houses, below and about which there is a considerable 

 accumulation of refuse. Doctor Jenness dug here for a short time 

 in 1926. 



The larger or Russian Diomede has two villages, each of which is 

 larger than the one on the smaller island. There are also said 

 to be some remains in a broad depression on the eastern side of the 

 island, while skeletal remains are reported by the natives to exist 

 among the rocks on the top. This island is in need of thorough 

 attention. Its people are reputed to be skilled ivory workers. They 

 come yearly to Nome, where they were visited and seen at their 

 work by the writer. They bring each year some fossil ivory, said 

 to come mainly from the Asiatic coast, and among this are occa- 

 sionally articles of much interest. 



Ruins of Eskimo villages are also present along the coasts of the 

 Chukchee Peninsula, both those facing the Bering Sea and those 

 along the Arctic. Very little is definitely known or can be found 

 from the American Eskimo about these ruins, and some of them 

 may not be Eskimo. Nelson in his book (p. 265) reports briefly 



