54 



No human remains distinctly referable to this period have been dis- 

 covered by us. Their mode of disposing of their dead remains in doubt. 

 It is not impossible that they exposed them on the surface. Their houses, 

 if they had any, must have been temporary structures of drift-wood, straw, 

 and mats ; at all events, they have utterly disappeared and left no sign. 

 The littoral settlements appear to have almost always been situated upon 

 some bank or hillock near the beacli, but beyond the reach of storms or 

 the highest tides. There are no evidences of any changes of the level of the 

 land since the stratum was formed. The western islands, where it is most 

 strongly marked, are metamoqDhic, not volcanic or eruptive like many of 

 the more eastern islands. 



We find in the Echinus layer no evidences of fire in the shape of char- 

 coal (one of the most indestructible of substances when buried) ; and we 

 know that the Aleuts of the historic period were accustomed to eat fish 

 and most of their other food raw. Indeed, such is, and jirobably always has 

 been, the scarcity of drift-wood on the western islands and its value for 

 other pm-poses, that little of it has ever been used for making fires. No 

 lamps have been found in the Echinus layer, nor any baking-stones or 

 hearthstones, so we may reasonably conclude that these ancient people 

 were not in the habit of using fire for domestic purposes, even if they Avere 

 acquainted with its use. The climate, though inclement from a Caucasian 

 point of view, is no more so than that of Magellan Strait, where the natives 

 still go nearly naked. The total absence of awls, bodkins, knives, needles, 

 or buttons, in fact of any bone utensil whatever which might be used in 

 making clothes, and of any bone or stone implements for dres.sing skins, 

 leads to the conclusion that these people did not wear much clothing ; and 

 what they might have worn was probably of a very simple character, such 

 as a rude mantle of skin, softened by rubbing between the hands or with 

 an ordinary pebble from the beach, like that of the Fuegians. It is not 

 unlikely that they might have made some coarse fabric of straw or grass 

 which would require no implements to sew, and would, if cast off, decay 

 and leave no trace. 



No weapons of any kind were found in the tons of this pulverized 

 Echinus-shell which we examined. There is no evidence that tliev were 



