The account of the survey will be limited in the main to
anthropological and archeological observations; but it is thought
best to give it largely in the form of the original notes made on the
spot or within a few hours after an event. These notes often contain
collateral observations or thoughts which could be excluded, but
the presence of which adds freshness, reliability, and some local
atmosphere to what otherwise would be a rather dry narrative. A
preliminary account of the trip and its results was published in the
Smithsonian exploration volume for 1926 (Washington, 1927, pp. 137-158).
Not much reference is possible to previous work of the nature here
dealt with in the parts visited, except in the Aleutian Islands, where
good archeological work was done in the late sixties by William H.
Dall,[1] and in 1909-10 by Waldemar Jochelson.[2]
The archeology and anthropology of the Gulf of Alaska, the inland, the
Yukon Basin, the Bering Sea coasts and islands, and those of the Arctic
coasts up to Point Barrow are but little known. The archeology is in
reality known only from the stone and old ivory implements that have
been incidentally collected and have reached various institutions where
they have been studied; from the excavations about Barrow, conducted
by an expedition of the University Museum, Philadelphia, in charge of
W. B. Van Valin, and by the trader, Mr. Charles Brower, the results
of which have not yet been published; and from the recent diggings at
Wales and on the smaller Diomede Island by Doctor Jenness.[3] Neither
Dall, Nelson, Rau, nor Murdoch conducted any excavations outside the
already mentioned work in the Aleutians.