A mile north of the last mentioned remains are four house-pits from 20 to 25 feet in diameter and 3 to 4 feet deep, which hold their square shape better than any observed elsewhere. They are covered with a heavy growth of moss and peat, which has accumulated to a thickness of from two to three feet on the gravel bank in front of them.

Still north of here, in the Channel and in the Okhotsk sea, are islands on which are Gilyak villages, permanently occupied. Several attempts were made to reach them, but all failed on account of the rough weather; and as the season for the autumn typhoon was now at hand, work had to be closed.

Conclusions

On the whole, there seems no reason for believing that a manner of living and a degree of culture materially different from those now prevailing in the region, have existed in the lower Amur valley since prehistoric times. Other, earlier, people there may have been, but they have left no traces. So far as ancient remains are concerned, an investigator finds nothing on which to establish a working theory as to migrations in any direction. All existing conditions, as they are disclosed by minute examination, are explicable by reference to known habits of the present inhabitants or to the Manchu whose possession of the region has lately terminated. With no mounds, no cairns, no shell-heaps, no burial-grounds, no evidence of agriculture, scarcely any stone implements or pottery, and with such specimens as exist in no wise distinctive - the archeologist stands helpless. The problems of migrations and of ethnic relations must be reached in some other way, if they are to be reached at all. SAINT LOUIS, Mo.

NOTEWORTHY ARCHEOLOGICAL SPECIMENS FROM

LOWER COLUMBIA VALLEY

BY HARLAN I. SMITH

In the summer of 1903 I examined the archeological collection of the Oregon Historical Society, in its museum in the City Hall at Portland. The collection contained unique sculptures as well as excellent types of rare objects supplementary to the material already forming a part of the collections in the American Museum of Natural History, as well as to the specimens included in the author's gatherings of that season in the field, and to those he had seen in the small collections of the region, and in the large museums of the East, such as those at Harvard, Yale, the University of Pennsylvania, and the National Museum at Washington. A loan of the original specimens for study in the Museum being greatly preferable to notes and sketches made on the spot, the Society, through its assistant secretary, Mr George H. Himes, courteously granted permission for their shipment to New York for study, photographing and casting. The Society also liberally granted the writer permission to take duplicate photographs and casts to supply the needs of other students and institutions, and otherwise to use them as might be deemed desirable in furthering the cause of ethnology. Prints from the negatives and casts from the molds of the specimens may now be obtained by students or institutions conducting researches on the North Pacific coast.

The sculptures, some of which are unique, are characteristic of the region of the lower Willamette. While not attempting to explain fully what these sculptures represent, they may be regarded as of great value in showing the character of the ancient art of that section.

Four specimens (pl. XXIII, a-d), which may be designated handhammer-adzes, have celtlike edges, but otherwise resemble cylindrical pestles with rather small knob-shaped tops. On each side may be noticed a facet or shallow pit.

STONE IMPLEMENTS FROM THE LOWER COLUMBIA VALLEY

a, b, c, d, Hand-hammer adzes. e-f, Hand-adzes (e-e', convex side and edge; f-f', concave side and edge). g. Hand-hammer adz.

(About 1/4)

The first hand-hammer-adze (a) resembles a plummet or cylindrical pestle, but it is not as thick as it is wide. On each side is a facet, apparently formed by using the object as a hammer for some soft-headed tool, such as a canoe-maker's wedge of wood or antler. The specimen has a knob-shaped top, a celtlike end with a rather straight edge, and is 85 inches (211 mm.) long. The bit is squarish and seems to have been reworked back from the edge for about onefifth of the entire length. Where this reworked surface terminates abruptly there is a rise to the older surface which in certain lights appears to form a ridge, in others a groove. There are similar but less distinct signs that the surface of the bit had been once or twice previously reworked still farther back, nearly to the edges of the facets. The present specimen is made of a heavy bluish-gray stone resembling diorite. The surface is smooth, especially on the ground bevels that form the celtlike edge and on the facets. This specimen was found by Mrs A. Dwier of Mt Tabor, and in November, 1900, was presented to the museum of the Oregon Historical Society by the Oregon Alpine Club, of which she was a member. (Cat. no. 99, List no. 29; Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., Cast cat. no. 16/9855, Neg. no. 12.)

The second hand-hammer-adze (b) closely resembles the first, except that the facet and surrounding surface on one side have been broken out, apparently by the use of the specimen as a pounding instrument. The knob-shaped top likewise is broken, as if pounded in an effort to use the whole object as a chisel or wedge as well as for an adze and a hammer; it shows only one reworked surface, which extends back nearly to the edge of the remaining (hardly noticeable) facet. The second specimen is 8 inches (216 mm.) long, and is composed of rather lighter and warmer-colored stone than the first. The marks left in pecking it into shape have not been entirely effaced by polishing except on the rubbed bevels which form the celtlike edge. The implement just described was found by Mrs A. Dwier of Mt Tabor, representing the Oregon Alpine Club, and in November, 1900, it was loaned to the museum of the Oregon Historical Society. (Cat. no. 139, List no. 27; Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., Cast cat. no. 16/9853, Neg. no. 12.)

The third hand-hammer-adze (c) also very closely resembles the