[FIGS. 27 AND 28]
The smaller or American Diomede, though a very inhospitable place,
supports, and that evidently since long, a small Eskimo village
of stone houses, below and about which there is a considerable
accumulation of refuse. Doctor Jenness dug here for a short time in
1926.
The larger or Russian Diomede has two villages, each of which is larger
than the one on the smaller island. There are also said to be some
remains in a broad depression on the eastern side of the island, while
skeletal remains are reported by the natives to exist among the rocks
on the top. This island is in need of thorough attention. Its people
are reputed to be skilled ivory workers. They come yearly to Nome,
where they were visited and seen at their work by the writer. They
bring each year some fossil ivory, said to come mainly from the Asiatic
coast, and among this are occasionally articles of much interest.
Ruins of Eskimo villages are also present along the coasts of the
Chukchee Peninsula, both those facing the Bering Sea and those along
the Arctic. Very little is definitely known or can be found from the
American Eskimo about these ruins, and some of them may not be Eskimo.
Nelson in his book (p. 265) reports briefly on a few about Cape
Wankarem. Interesting objects of the fossil ivory culture are said
to occur in these old sites as far west as the Kolyma, but nothing
is certain except that there are ruins, that a good number of them
are probably Eskimo, and that fossil ivory, both worked (walrus) and
unworked (mammoth), comes from these coasts. A noteworthy report is
that of a large native cemetery on the Bering Sea side, with hundreds
of burials in rough stone-slab graves. Information of this was given me
by Joe Bernard, well known in connection with Bering Sea explorations,
who had seen the site in person.
[Illustration: FIGURE 27.--Eskimo villages and sites, St. Lawrence
Island, the Diomedes, and the eastern Asiatic coast]
211. _Gambell_ (_or Chibukuk_).--Old Eskimo settlement on the northwest
cape of St. Lawrence Island. United States National Museum expedition,
1912, by Riley D. Moore; anthropometric data; important collections.
212. Small sites, north bay, St. Lawrence Island, indicated on 1849
Russian map (q. v.).
213. _Savonga._--A small modern Eskimo village. A. H., 1926; some
collections.
214. Ruins of an old site 4 miles northeast of Savonga. Important
archeologically.