After lunch children come running in saying they hear thunder; one girl saying in their usual choppy, picturesque way, "Outside is thunder"; another smaller one says, "It hollers above." Before long a sprinkle and then gradually more and more rain until there is a downpour followed by several thunderclaps (as with us) and then some more rain. That, of course, stops the fire from approaching closer and all is safe. Such storms are rare occurrences hereabouts. My limbs are a sight from the gnats. Must apply Aseptinol. Worse than any mosquitoes; like the worst chiggers. Poisonous--some hemolytic substance, which causes also much itching, especially at night. Arrange to leave to-morrow. Good people these, unpretentious, but white through and through. Mr. Lawrence, the local trader, who with his boy was with me yesterday, is going to take me to an old site down the river and then to Holy Cross. Donates a fine old ivory arrow point from the site mentioned. Doctor Chapman gives three old dishes and two stone axes--haft on one of recent manufacture. The natives seem to have nothing of this nature, and no old site is near. The nearest is Bonasila, where we go to-morrow. This is truly a fish country. Along the placid Anvik River fish smell everywhere--dead fish on shore here and there, or fish eggs, or offal. Wednesday, June 30. Hazy and cool, 52° F. Take leave with friend, Doctor Chapman, then at school, and leave 8 a. m. for Bonasila. The gnat pest was bad this morning--could hardly load my baggage; had to apply the smear again, but this helps only where put and for a time only. BONASILA Close to 10 a. m. arrive at the Bonasila site. Not much--just a low bank of the big river, not over 4 feet high in front, and a higher rank grass-covered flat with a little stream on the left and a hill on the right. But the flat is full of fossae of old barabras (pit and tunnel dwellings), all wood on surface gone; and there is a cemetery to the right and behind, on a slope. Examine beach and banks minutely until 12. Modest lunch--two sandwiches, a bit of cake and tea--and then begin to examine the shore again. Soon after arrival finding bones of animals, some partly fossilized; beaver, deer, caribou, bear, fox, dog, etc., all species still living in Alaska, as found later, though no more in the immediate neighborhood.