"At Cape Wankarem and at other places on the Siberian coast we found the ruins of houses similar to those now in use by the Innuits. These houses, which have been found by different travelers at many places along that coast, are not at all like those used by the Tchuktchis, which, on account of the migratory habits of the reindeer tribes, are so constructed that they can be taken down and put up again at will."[52]
Ray and Murdoch both speak of old sites. The very spot they selected for their observatory at Barrow was one of these. Ray says of it:
"A point about 12 feet above the sea level, lying between the sea and a small lagoon three-fourths of a mile northeast from Uglaamie, was finally selected. The soil was firm and as dry as any unoccupied place in that vicinity, and as it was marked by mounds of an ancient village would be free from inundation."[53]
And farther on:
"That the ancestors of those people have made it their home for ages is conclusively shown by the ruins of ancient villages and winter huts along the seashore and in the interior. On the point where the station was established were mounds marking the site of three huts dating back to the time when they had no iron and men 'talked like dogs'; also at Perigniak a group of mounds mark the site of an ancient village. It stands in the midst of a marsh; a sinking of the land causing it to be flooded and consequently abandoned, as it is their custom to select the high and dry points of land along the seashore for their permanent villages. The fact of our finding a pair of wooden goggles 26 feet below the surface of the earth, in the shaft sunk for earth temperatures, points conclusively to the great lapse of time since these shores were first peopled by the race of man."[54]
The village of Sidaru, southwest of Cape Belcher, which in Ray's time had a population of about 50, has since gone "dead."
The most direct attention to this subject has been given by Nelson. In his excellent large memoir on "The Eskimo about Bering Strait"[55] he states as follows:
"Ruins of ancient Eskimo villages are common on the lower Yukon and thence along the coast line to Point Barrow. On the Siberian shore they were seen from East Cape along the Arctic coast to Cape Wankarem....
"On the shore of the bay on the southern side of St. Michael Island I dug into an old village site where saucer-shape pits indicated the places formerly occupied by houses. The village had been burned, as was evident from the numerous fragments of charred timbers mixed with the soil. In the few cubic feet of earth turned up at this place were found a slate fish knife, an ivory spearhead, a doll, and a toy dish, the latter two cut from bark. The men I had with me from the village at St. Michael became so alarmed by their superstitious feelings that I was obliged to give up the idea of getting further aid from them in this place. I learned afterward that this village had been built by people from Pastolik, at the mouth of the Yukon, who went there to fish and to hunt seals before the Russians came to the country.