57 



It muy be remarked also that the use of the seine woukl tend to knit 

 the intei'ests of the connnunity together, as individuals coukl vise hand-nets 

 or gather echini, but the united labor of several would be required not only 

 to use, but to make, the seine. Better material than the twisted grass, which 

 might serve for hand-nets, would also be required to make a seine efficient. 

 If this were supplied by sinew or raw-hide line, it would require the culti- 

 vation of a new industry to utilize the raw material. The sinew from 

 stranded whales was the probable source of suppl3^ 



Whatever might have been the cause of the change, it is a fact that 

 we find immediately surmounting the Echinus layer, in all cases, a bed 

 composed of fish-bones, intermixed with molluscan shells, and rai-ely the 

 bones of birds. Traces of Echinus test or spines may be occasionally seen, 

 but these and the other materials mentioned form so small a proportion of 

 the whole mass that to casual inspection it presents the appearance of a 

 solid bed of fish-bones compacted and forced together by time, the tread of 

 those ancient *feet, and the Aveight of the accunudations above. Here, 

 as in the Echinvis layer, we find a remarkable absence of earth, decayed 

 vegetable material, or carbonized wood. The bones are clean and free from 

 detritus. Had the people built houses, at least like those of the modern 

 Aleuts, depressions in the strata of fish-bones, masses of earth from their 

 turfy walls, or stones, would somewhere present themselves. There is 

 no doubt that the fish were eaten raw, as that has been the custom until 

 very recently among the historic Aleuts, and has not entirely died out to 

 this day. But had fire been commonly used, we should anticipate some 

 remains of chal'coal in the deposits, or lamps, if fish-oil had been their fuel. 

 These, however, have not occurred in all ovn- researches. It is probable 

 that these people lived in temporary huts of mats or skins, retiring and 

 rising with the sun. 



The fish-bones composing the layer are those of species still commonly 

 found in that region. They are chiefly the bones of the head and vertebrai 

 of two kinds of salmon (hoikoh' of the Russians, and another, Salmo sp.), 

 and similar parts of the cod (Gadus macrocephalus, Tilesius), the halibut 

 (Hippoglossus vitJffaris? , Cuvier), and several species of herring, sculpins, and 

 flounders, which I cannot, at the date of writing, specifically identify. The 



