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Show PREHISTORIC MAN. I Unearthing of Richest Find of Relics in Arctic Seas. One' of the richest finds of relics of pre-historic man perhaps ever made is that unearthed by Captain Francis Tuttle of they revenue cutter Bear during dur-ing her recent trip In the arctic seas, says the Tacoma correspondent of the New York World. A house built by human hu-man beings probably thousands of years ago, was found, and Captain To-zier, To-zier, senior officer of the fleet, now has some of the utensils used by the people who made it a habitation. Two years ago a missionary at Point Barrow told Captain Tuttle of a remarkable re-markable discovery the natives of the vicinity had made of the framework of a house which was partially imbedded in a cliff fronting on the ocean fifteen miles southeast of Point Barrow. At the point where the house was discovered discov-ered protruding the cliff rose sheer seventy sev-enty feet from the ocean. Forty feet above tidewater and thirty feet from the top of the cliff one end of the house was exposed. The Indians first noticed the end of the house nine years ago, and year after year as the cliff crumbled into the ocean the framework of the house-became more plainly visible. The house was built somewhat after the plan of the structures of the nrimitivo Inhabit ants of America. . The ribs of an enormous whale or of some animal now extinct were used for a framework, and over these skins had evidently been stretched. No trace of the skins, however, could be found, but the framework of the house was intact. Captain Tuttle is of the opinion that the house described is one of a settlement settle-ment or village that stood on the shores of the Arctic in the dim past. At the instigation of Captain Tuttle" the na- . tives of Point Barrow made excavations excava-tions in the cliff and brought away all the utensils that could be discovered. The Immense bones that made up the framework of the house were left on the shores of the Arctic. The utensils found at the spot con-fist con-fist of a bailer for a boat, a carved ivory rowlock, four stone knives, a bone knife and a skining knife. This skinning skin-ning knife is in the shape of a crude old-fashioned drawing knife, such as is used by carpenters, minus the handles. It is about the length pf a drawing knife, but the stone blade which is fit- j ted in the center is about four inches . in breadth by three or four inches deep. The boat bailer is made from the ivory of a mastodon tusk. It is shaped somewhat like an old-fashioned gourd dipper, and will hold about one pint of water. The bone knife, resembles a machete with an etching of a pre-historic animal on the blade. The image appears to be a rude caricature of a rhinoceros. , . The fact that there was thirty feet of gravel and earth above the house and that all the utensils were of stone and bone and mastodon tusks warrants the conclusion that the house was built in remote antiquity. |
