434 ALASKAN MUMMIES. 



The practice of preserving the bodies of the dead was in vogue 

 among the inhabitants of the Aleutian Islands and the Kadiak 

 archipelago at the time of their discovery, and probably had been 

 the custom among them for centuries. We find nothing of it on 

 the mainland. It is curious to trace the customs of the wild tribes 

 in this respect in connection with their external surroundings. In 

 the Chukchee peninsula on the Asiatic side of Bering Strait, there 

 is no soil in many places. The substratum of granitoid rock is 

 broken by the frost into hundreds of angular fragments, which are 

 covered with a thin coating of various mosses, which may be 

 stripped off in great pieces like a blanket. There are no trees 

 and but little driftwood. Burial is impracticable, cremation im- 

 possible, and the natives expose their dead on some hillside to the 

 tender mercies of bears, dogs and foxes. 



In the Yukon valley at a short distance below the surface the 

 soil is permanently frozen, and excavation without iron tools ex- 

 tremely difficult. But timber abounds, and the bodies of the 

 dead, doubled up to economize space, are placed in wooden coffins 

 which are secured without nails and elevated above the surface of 

 the earth on four posts. To scare away wild beasts poles are 

 frequently erected around the coffin, bearing long strips of fur or 

 cloth which are agitated by the wind. 



The poor and friendless may be simply covered with a pile of 

 logs, secured by heavy stones; but in general the method is afl 

 above. Various modifications are found in various localities ; the 

 coffin on the lower Yukon is sometimes filled in with clay, packed 

 hard ; and the Nowikakhat Indians sometimes place their dead 

 erect, surrounded by hewn timbers secured like the staves of a 



On the islands the soil is unfrozen and there are no obstacles to 

 digging. But wood is only found on the shores, drifted by the 

 ocean currents, and usually not in large quantities. However 

 there are no wild animals to disturb the remains ; the beetling 

 cliffs which are found on every hand, shattered by frequent earth- 

 quakes, afford in the talus of broken rock at their bases, abundant 

 and convenient rock-shelters. Here the natural depositories exist, 

 of which the natives have availed themselves. On all these cus- 

 toms, originally prompted by the bare necessities of the case, the 

 slow development of sentiment and feeling (which undoubtedly 

 does take place in savage people, though we may not be able to 



