238 ANTHROPOLOGICAL. SURVEY IN ALASKA [eth. ANN. 46 



Present Data on the Western Eskimo 



the living 



Barring the Aleutian and Pribilof Islands in the south and the 

 Chukchee territory in the west, the Bering Sea is wholly the sea of 

 the Eskimo, the Indians occupying the inland but reaching nowhere 

 to the coast. There is doubtless much of significance in this remark- 

 able distribution. It is now quite certain that the Eskimo has not 

 been pressed out by the Indian ; there are as a rule no traces of him 

 farther inland than where he has been within historic times. On 

 the other hand no Indian remnants or remains are known from 

 any part of the coasts or islands within the Eskimo region; though 

 the study of the older sites in these regions has barely as yet begun, 

 besides which (see Narrative) it is a serious question whether really 

 old sites could now be located in these regions at all even if they had 

 once existed. At all events the Eskimo appears from all indications 

 to be the latest comer, and judging from his remains his occupancy 

 here is not geologically ancient; it is one to be counted, apparently, in 

 many hundreds of years rather than in thousands. The Aleuts in the 

 south are, as I have pointed out in the Catalogue (No. 1. 1924, p. 39), 

 not Eskimo but Indians, related to the general Alaska Indian type; 

 and the Pribilof Islands appear never to have been occupied until 

 fairly recently, when a good number of Aleuts, mostly mixed bloods, 

 have been transported and established there in the interest of the 

 seal fisheries. 



MEASUREMENTS OF LIVING WESTERN ESKIMO 



Thanks to Moore, Collins, and Stewart, all of the National 

 Museum, instructed by me and working with the same instru- 

 ments, we now have several small to fair series of measurements on 

 the living western Eskimo of both sexes. They are tabulated below. 

 They are the first made on these groups and will be of much interest 

 both in general and in connection with the measurements made on the 

 skulls and bones of most of the same people. The main points shown 

 are as follows : 



Statute. — The stature of the males ranges from markedly to mod- 

 erately submedium. There is a considerable similarity. Only the 

 Yukon group and that of Togiak reach near or slightly above me- 

 dium, the general human medium for males approaching 165 centi- 

 meters. The female stature on the St. Lawrence Island averages 12 

 centimeters less than that of the males, which is about the difference 

 found in most other peoples. At Hooper Bay, and especially at the 

 Nunivak Island, the difference is less, indicating either that the males 

 are slightly stunted or that the growth of the females is somewhat 

 favored. 



