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Back to article: GILSONITE (so named after S. H. Gilson of Salt Lake City)

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GILSONITE (so named after S. H. Gilson of Salt Lake City),
Or UINTAHITE, Or UINTAITE, a description of asphalt occurring in masses several inches in diameter in the Uinta (or Uintah) valley, near Fort Duchesne, Utah. It is of black colour; its fracture is conchoidal, and it has a lustrous surface. When warmed it becomes plastic, and on further heating fuses perfectly. It has a specific gravity of 1•o65 to 1.070. It dissolves freely in hot oil of turpentine. The output amounted to 10,916 short
tons for the year 1905, and the value was $4'31 per ton. GILYAKS, a hybrid people, originally widespread throughout
the Lower Amur" district, but now confined to the Amur delta and the north of Sakhalin. They have been affiliated by some authorities to the Ainu of Sakhalin and Yezo; but they are more probably a mongrel people, and Dr A. Anuchin states that there are two types, a Mongoloid with sparse beard, high cheek-bones and flat face, and a Caucasic with bushy beard and more regular features. The Chinese call them Yupitatse, " Fish-skinclad people," from their wearing a peculiar dress made from
salmon skin.
See E. G. Ravenstein, The Russians on the Amur (1861); Dr A. Anuchin, Mem. Imp. Soc. Nat. Sc. xx., Supplement (Moscow, 1877); H. von Siebold, Uber die Aino (Berlin, 1881); J. Deniker in Revue d'ethnographie (Paris, 1884) ; L. Schrenck, Die Volker des Amurlandes (St Petersburg, 1891).