Alaska -- Antiquities; Eskimos; Eskimos -- Anthropometry; Indians of North America -- Alaska; Indians of North America -- Yukon
The outfit is largely homemade, not imposing, old, unpainted, and unfit
for the rough--but it could be worse. It consists of a scow, a low,
flat-bottomed boat, partly covered with canvas roof on birch hoops,
in which Peake (the owner) carries fresh meat to some one, a stove,
dishes, bedding, and many other things; and the motor boat proper, in
which there is little room except for the machine and its tender. The
latter sits on a soap box; I, on a seat extemporized from a cylindrical
piece of firewood with a little board across it, with my two boxes
and bedding within easy reach. Sit in front of the scow, except when
driven back by spray. But our motor works and so we start quite well
at some time after 11. The arrangement is to stop at every white man's
camp or settlement down to Ruby. I could have gone on a better boat
with its owner, but they charge here $15 a day, with "keep," and twice
the amount for the return of the man and the boat, which is beyond my
resources.
Tanana--Ruby. The river is clearer than the Tanana, and much broader.
It is a great fine stream and its shores, while mostly still low on the
left, on the right rise here and there into moderate loess bluffs, far
beyond which are seen higher elevations and bluish forested mountains.
All covered with poplar and spruce.
2.15 p. m. Wind has so increased that the scow bumps and squeaks and
there is danger of opening its seams. Therefore side to the beach and
make lunch--a roast of fat pork, over-salted, canned spinach, dry
bread, and black coffee. All on a simple, old, but efficient little
stove in the boat. Our companion, the oculist, rides not with us but in
a nice little green canoe with a plaything of a gasoline motor fastened
to the backboard, but we all eat and sleep together.
But a few small Indian camps seen, and no white man's house. Soon after
lunch, however, approach "The Old Station," where there are a few
Indian houses, and later a white man's place (Burchell's). Stop at the
latter. Learn that we are 20 miles from Tanana and on a 5-mile-long
channel. There are here 15 to 40 feet high loess-like (silt) bluffs
with a flat on the top, which latter was from far back one of the most
important sites of the Indians of these regions. Mr. Burchell and his
partner kindly take me back, with their better boat, to the main old
site. Many old graves there, a few still marked. Traces of dugouts
(birch-bark lined), houses, caches, etc., from Burchell's place to old
main site. Important place that deserves to be thoroughly excavated,
though this will entail no little work. Site was of the choicest,
dominant, healthy. Connects by a trail, still traceable, with the
Koyukuk region.
There are said to be no traces of pottery in any of these parts. But
average to very large stone axes are washed out occasionally from the
banks, and other articles are dug out (long ivory spear, bone scraper,
etc.). Promise of bones, etc., by Mr. Burchell.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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