572 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



miles, which, in the vicinity of the Peace 

 River, on the fifty-sixth parallel, decreases 

 to about forty miles. It is bounded on the 

 east by the Great Plains, which break into 

 a series of foot-hills along its bases, and 

 on the west by a remarkably straight and 

 definite valley occupied by the Columbia, 

 Kootenay, and other rivers. Since the early 

 part of the century the trade of the fur 

 companies has traversed this range, chiefly 

 by the Athabasca and Peace River Passes ; 

 but, till the explorations effected by the ex- 

 pedition under Captain Palliser in 185S-'59, 

 nothing was known in detail of the struct- 

 ure of the range. During the progress of 

 the railway exploratious a number of passes 

 were examined, and in 1883 and 1SS4 that 

 part of the range between the forty-ninth 

 parallel and latitude 61° 30' was explored 

 and mapped in some detail in connection 

 with the work of the Canadian Geological 

 Survey by the author and his assistants. 

 Access to this, the southern portion of the 

 Rocky Mountains within Canadian terri- 

 tory, being now readily obtained by the 

 railway, its mineral and other resources are 

 receiving attention, while the magnificent 

 Alpine scenery that it affords is beginning 

 to attract the notice of tourists and other 

 travelers. 



Dr. Le Plongeon's Researches in Yuca- 

 tan. — Mrs. Alice D. Le Plongeon, who, with 

 Dr. Le Plongeon, has been zealously en- 

 gaged in exploring the ancient ruins of 

 Yucatan, read a paper at one of the meet- 

 ings of the New York Academy of Sciences, 

 in 1886, on some of the results of their 

 joint observations. It related principally to 

 the cities of Uxmal and Chichen-Itza. The 

 " Governor's House " at Uxmal is three hun- 

 dred and eighteen feet long, and is divided 

 into twenty rooms, the two largest of which 

 are 6ixty feet long, with ceilings in the form 

 of triangular arches. Outside, the cornice 

 above the doorways supports a magnificent 

 entablature, with designs which, according 

 to the author's interpretation, represent the 

 face of the mastodon, and embody facts con- 

 cerning the foundation of the city, with 

 statues of the founders. North of this build- 

 ing is a palace of one hundred and two 

 rooms, the arching entrance to the court of 

 which bears traces of paint, and various 



red hands. "Similar imprints are seen in 

 several buildings, because it was customary 

 for those who used or owned the edifice to 

 dip their hands in red liquid and press the 

 palm against the wall to invoke a divine 

 blessing for the house and inmates, and also 

 to denote ownership." All the facades of 

 this building are elaborately ornamented, 

 and each is different from the others. The 

 prevalent ornament is that of the feathered 

 6erpent in different attitudes and designs. 

 On one side, at each end of the facade, was 

 a serpent's head, the tail of the other one 

 drooping over it. They had seven rattles, 

 and just above them was an urn-ornament, 

 with a long plume dependent from it. The 

 heads were crowned, and in the distended 

 jaws of the one yet in place there is a bat's 

 head, and in the bat's mouth the face of 

 a woman. A distinction is made between 

 these serpents and the Maya serpent- emblem 

 of the spirit of the universe, which had not 

 rattles, but a dart at the end of the tail, 

 and not feathers, but wings, and here and 

 there something like fins. In what is called 

 a grand castle at Chichen-Itza are many 

 sculptured pillars, and among the figures 

 represented several men with faces in pro- 

 file, having long beards. One of them was 

 so like Dr. Le Plongeon that the Indians 

 said it was himself who had lived in that 

 place in ages long gone by ! It seems that 

 they believe in reincarnation. In another 

 building is a scries of mural paintings 

 representing religious ceremonies, domestic 

 scenes, and battles, the figures of which are 

 said to " show a far more skillful hand than 

 those portrayed in the paintings found in 

 the tombs of Egypt." Near here was found 

 what was regarded as a mausoleum, elabo- 

 rately ornamented with sculptured macaws 

 and leopards and a leopard-sphinx, in the 

 interior of which, at twenty feet below 

 the surface, were discovered a large statue 

 and two urns containing the cremated re- 

 mains of the prince, to whom the whole 

 was a monument, with articles in jade, chal- 

 cedony, and greenstone. The statue was 

 drawn out, but was afterward seized by the 

 Mexicans and taken to the museum at the 

 capital. In another mausoleum, besides the 

 funerary urn, with the manes and talismans 

 and the statue, were found one hundred and 

 eighty-two conoidal pillars, some painted 



