Eskimo Settlement in Alaska

Abstract

AN expedition of the University of Pennsylvania Museum, of which Miss Frederica de Laguna is the leader, working in Alaska during the past season, reports the discovery, according to Science Service, of a prehistoric Eskimo settlement at Cook's Inlet. This area is at present inhabited by Indians, and the settlement would appear to represent the most southerly extension of Eskimo culture known. Shell heaps on the shore, some of them ten to fourteen feet in height, have been investigated. Among the relics were a number of personal ornaments, including lip plugs, beads, an ivory pendant, a carved ivory head, and a nose-pin. The objects of domestic use included a lamp, a needle-case and needles, and an ivory catch for a box. One of the most interesting relics was a mirror of slate, of which the surface showed the reflection on being damped.