270 CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON. 



Trujillo Railroad, in a borrow-pit near the Aguan River, was fully 

 10 feet below the present level of the ground, underneath a stratum of 

 alluvial soil laid down by the river in one or more of its many wan- 

 derings over the flood-plain. Similar objects have been found on 

 the adjacent Bay Islands, notably at Ruatan and Guanaja, and it 

 seems probable, from the preliminary examination, that this part of 

 the coast and the adjacent islands may be assigned to one and the 

 same archeological province, the culture of which was certainly in- 

 ferior to that of the Maya and probably of subsequent origin as well. 



East of the Aguan River no sites were found, although such may 

 possibly exist in the dense bush behind the beach. From this point 

 eastward, moreover, the character of the country begins to change; 

 the mountains draw away from the shore-line and finally disappear 

 altogether, and there commences a series of shallow lagoons sepa- 

 rated from the sea only by a low sandy strip of land. These and the 

 surrounding marshes mark the edges of the great deltas of the Patuca 

 and Wanks Rivers, and they were unadapted to the development of 

 a high culture.* 



The present inhabitants of this region are the Miskito Indians, a 

 degenerate mongrel tribe in which Carib and possibly other strains 

 appear. They are a simple fishing people, living in thatched huts 

 along the banks of the lagoons and water-courses, with crude arts 

 and crafts, among which stone carving is not included. 



There are traditions of a more cultured tribe, the Sumus, who for- 

 merly occupied the region, but who long ago were driven back into 

 the less desirable interior by the Miskito. Remnants of these older 

 inhabitants of the littoral are still to be found several days' journey 

 up the Patuca and Wanks rivers of eastern Honduras and northern 

 Nicaragua. 



It may be stated with reasonable assurance, although final proof 

 must await further exploration and excavation, that proceeding 

 eastward along the coast-plain evidences of high cultural activity fall 

 off rapidly once the Ulua Valley is left behind; also, that the Maya 

 civilization proper does not seem to have exerted much influence east 

 of this same valley. 



The second trip, to the peninsula of Yucatan, was by far the most 

 important of the year, and the results obtained, through the discov- 

 ery of the system of dating used in the northern cities, promise to 

 shed a flood of light upon the little-known chronology of the New 

 Empire. It has long been recognized that, after the Maya migrated 

 northward from Guatemala and Honduras during the sixth and 

 seventh centuries after Christ, into the peninsula of Yucatan, along 

 with many another custom and practice, their system of recording 



♦Stone carvings of grotesque animal heads reported to have come from a site 5 to 6 days' 

 journey up the Black River, just east of the Agiian River, were examined at Rincon. These are 

 quite un-Mayan in character and suggest a local intensive development of stone-carving rather 

 than an extensive distribution of the technique. 



