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.
Mosquitoes and gnats bad--use lot of oil. Begin soon to find remarkably
primitive looking stone tools, knockers, scrapers, etc. Crawl through
washed-down trees and brush. Many stones on the beach show signs of
chipping or use. Very crude--a protolithic industry; but a few pieces
better and showing polished edge. Also plenty of fragments of pottery,
not seldom decorated (indented). Make quite a collection. And then, to
cap it, find parts of human skeleton, doubtless washed out from the
bank. Much missing, but a good bit recovered, and that bit is very
striking. (See p. 156.) Also a cut bone (clean cut, as if by a sharp
knife) in situ in the mud of the bank, and a little birch-bark basket
still filled with mud from the bank, with later a larger basket of same
nature in situ; could save but a piece. Conditions puzzling. Was there
an older site under one more recent?
2 p. m. About 2 p. m. go to the cemetery. About a dozen burials
recognizable. A pest of mosquitoes and gnats--Lawrence soon bleeds over
face and neck, while I keep them off only by frequent smearing. He
soon has to smear, too. Open five graves--placed above ground, wooden
(split and no nails) boxes covered with earth and sod. Skeletons all
in contracted position, head to the east and lying on right side. Some
in poor condition. Three women, one man, one child. Gnats swarm in the
moss and the graves, and with the smears, here and there a trickle of
blood, the killed pests and the dust, we soon look lovely. But there
is enough of interest. With each burial appears something--with the
man two large blue Russian beads; first woman--a pottery lamp (or
dish), iron knife; with the second two fire sticks, stone objects
(sharpeners), partly decayed clay dish; with the third, a Russian bead
and a birch-bark snuffbox; with the child a "killed" (?) glass bottle
of old form and an iron flask; in the grave of an infant (bones gone) a
Russian bead. A grave of a child--bones burned.
6.15 p. m. Rest must be left. Lawrence may be enabled to do some work
in the fall. Leave 6.15; carry quite a lot--in sacks, gasoline cans,
lard cans. Wonder how I shall be able to send things from Holy Cross,
and what next. Cool, sky overcast whole day.