The practice of preserving the bodies of those belonging to the whaling class—­a custom peculiar to the Kadiak Innuit—­has erroneously been confounded with the one now described.  The latter included women as well as men, and all those whom the living desired particularly to honor.  The whalers, however, only preserved the bodies of males, and they were not associated with the paraphernalia of those I have described.  Indeed, the observations I have been able to make show the bodies of the whalers to have been preserved with stone weapons and actual utensils instead of effigies, and with the meanest apparel, and no carvings of consequence.  These details, and those of many other customs and usages of which the shell heaps bear no testimony * * * do not come within my line.

Figure 5, copied from Dall, represents the Alaskan mummies.

Martin Sauer, secretary to Billings’ Expedition,[36] speaks of the Aleutian Islanders embalming their dead, as follows: 

They pay respect, however, to the memory of the dead, for they embalm the bodies of the men with dried moss and grass; bury them in their best attire, in a sitting posture, in a strong box, with their darts and instruments; and decorate the tomb with various coloured mats, embroidery, and paintings.  With women, indeed, they use less ceremony.  A mother will keep a dead child thus embalmed in their hut for some months, constantly wiping it dry; and they bury it when it begins to smell, or when they get reconciled to parting with it.

Regarding these same people, a writer in the San Francisco Bulletin gives this account: 

The schooner William Sutton, belonging to the Alaska Commercial Company, has arrived from the seal islands of the company with the mummified remains of Indians who lived on an island north of Ounalaska one hundred and fifty years ago.  This contribution to science was secured by Captain Henning, an agent of the company who has long resided at Ounalaska.  In his transactions with the Indians he learned that tradition among the Aleuts assigned Kagamale, the island in question, as the last resting-place of a great chief, known as Karkhayahouchak.  Last year the captain was in the neighborhood of Kagamale in quest of sea-otter and other furs, and he bore up for the island, with the intention of testing the truth of the tradition he had heard.  He had more difficulty in entering the cave than in finding it, his schooner having to beat on and off shore for three days.  Finally he succeeded in affecting a landing, and clambering up the rocks he found himself in the presence of the dead chief, his family and relatives.

     The cave smelt strongly of hot sulphurous vapors.  With great
     care the mummies were removed, and all the little trinkets
     and ornaments scattered around were also taken away.