272 CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON. 



The area in question is not large, a 50-mile square in the northeastern 

 corner of the Department of Peten practically comprises it, and none of these 

 sites are far apart in an air-line. 



Some surprising and, in view of existing highways of travel (the only too 

 casual and round-about chicle-trails), disconcerting facts developed therefrom. 

 For example, it takes a mule-train, over existing trails, two days to go from 

 Xmakabatun to Xultun, which are only 11.4 miles apart, and other instances 

 of the proximity of these cities one to another might be cited. Indeed, no two 

 of them are so far apart as to require an Indian on foot more than a single day 

 to travel between them, and some of them, as, for example, Tikal and Uolan- 

 tun, are so close together, 3.5 miles, that they must be regarded as parts of 

 the same city. 



Evidence multiplies that this section of the Old Empire was one of the 

 most densely populated areas of its size in the whole world during the first six 

 centuries of the Christian era, and the occupation of the land between the 

 different larger centers, hke Tikal, Uaxactun, Xultun, Nakum, Naranjo, etc., 

 must have been practically continuous. 



Report of Mr. J . 0. Kilmartin on the Topographic Survey of Lake Peten. 



The object of the topographic survey of the Lake Peten region was to 

 ascertain whether or not the peninsulas of San Benito, Candalaria, and 

 Tayasal were islands, as described by the different Spanish conquerors and 

 padres at the time of their entradas, between 1525-1697, and which was the 

 Peten Grande, or Island Capital of the Peten Itzas, and what rise of water 

 would be necessary to convert these present peninsulas into islands. 



On the peninsula of San Benito a trail leads from the village of San Benito 

 at the point, across the mountains to San Juan de Dios, La Libertad, and other 

 villages. Only one place was found along it (at the trail-forks and inclosed by 

 the 490-foot contour) that might have been an island, and this certainly 

 was not so at the time of Father Avendano's visit to Tayasal in 1697. For 

 about a mile back from the lake shore the topography is fairly regular — 

 that is, it is not broken up by small drains. This section was an old lake- 

 bed at one time. In front of the cemetery in San Benito is a small saddle, 

 elevation 425, and just to the north, extending along the peninsula, is a 

 small knoll inclosed by the 430-foot contour, but this is not to be considered. 



While traversing the trail to Picu west of San Benito, a good view could 

 be obtained of Candalaria Peninsula, and what might be the lowest place 

 appeared to be about a mile back from the extreme end of the peninsula. A 

 trail was cut into it and elevation established. Ruins were found scattered 

 throughout this area; practically all just above the 460-foot contour. The 

 trail from San Geronimo Bay to Picu was next traversed and nothing was 

 found tending to prove that Candalaria Peninsula was ever an island. 



The third and most important peninsula under consideration is that of 

 Tayasal, which many have thought to be the Island Capital of the Peten Itzas. 

 After traversing the trail to Pitchalhn, a line of levels was carried south to 

 Naranjal, along an old trail which passes through a low gap on the 565-foot 

 contour, then dropping into a hajo (low ground), elevation 520, and thence 

 into the drainage of Lake Eckixil, which is west. At Naranjal the line con- 

 tinued in a southwesterly direction across the foothills and on to El Yex. 

 From El Yex the line continues to San Benito, thus completing a circuit 



