35 



two ti'ibes had come down to historic time, as the Quechiia 

 and Aymara tribes, though very much deteriorated and 

 degraded since the Conquest. The Quechuas were prob- 

 ably formed by the union of various small tribes adopting 

 a common language, which Forbes considers as probably 

 founded on the older Aymara. From a study of the arts 

 as shown by the specimens of weaving, etc., and espe- 

 cially of the pottery, it is hardly to be doubted that there 

 was also a much higher development, at what is consid- 

 ered by Forbes as the ancient site of the Aymaras, about 

 Lake Titicaca and especially at Tiahuanaco, all the pot- 

 tery from this region being far superior in shape, design 

 and execution, as well as generally of a different pattern, 

 from that of the coast. Mr. Agassiz also arrived at the 

 same conclusion from an inspection of the ancient ruins 

 about the lake, and has stated that there is evidence of 

 an intrusion of a later people at various places, as shown 

 by two styles of architecture, one of which has been in- 

 truded upon the other. That these ancient people of the 

 lake region were the ancestors of the Aymaras may be 

 probable, but if so, even these Indians which have re- 

 mained the purest and most isolated of all the Peruvian 

 and Bolivian tribes, must have deteriorated, or have been 

 disturbed in their development toward a higher civiliza- 

 tion, even prior to the mythical Inca times. The lecturer 

 here exhibited a large collection of photographs illustrat- 

 ing the several comparisons he had made, and showing the 

 various kinds of architecture as exhibited by the ruins on 

 the islands of Titicaca and Coati, and of several other 

 places ; also photographs of different localities in Peru, in 

 order to show the various natural conditions now existins: 

 in the several regions whence the collections were obtained 

 by Mr. Agassiz, to whose kindness he was indebted for 

 the use of the photographs on this occasion. A number 



