HISTOEICAL NAEEATIVES AND FIELD WORK 35 



rou<rhly corresponding to the present boundaries of the Dominican 

 Province of Samana. It was formerly also written Xamana. 



Work on the Samana Peninsula sites concluded the 1928 season 

 for the United States National Museum expedition, due to the ap- 

 proach of hot weather in May. Kainfall is very heavy in Samana, 

 but the expedition was remarkably fortunate in that the rainfall 

 during the early months of 1928 was much below normal. Doctor 

 Abbott observed that normally it is raining at some point in Samana 

 Bay or the surrounding shore practically all the time. Rainfall is 

 more abundant at Sanchez, at the head of the bay, than at Samana, 

 farther to the east. Precipitation records at Sanchez show an aver- 

 age fall of rain of over 6 inches per month, except for the period 

 from December to April. For portions of the interior and western 

 sections of the island there appears to be two periods of heavy rain- 

 fall — one in November, the other in spring. Tiie western portion 

 of the great central plain is much drier. Thorn forests begin west 

 of the interior town of Santiago de los Caballeros, and huge cacti 

 dot the plains of the northwestern Province of Monte Cristi. 



Field work in Monte Cristi Province^ 1929. — During the following 

 year, 1929, from January to May, excavations were conducted at 

 aboriginal village sites in Monte Cristi Province, formerly occupied 

 by Ciguayans and other Arawak (Taino) tribes of the native Prov- 

 inces of Marien and Samana. Three aboriginal sites were explored 

 in the foothills southeast of the Dominican town of Monte Cristi, 

 midway between the Haitian fishing village of Petite Saline on the 

 Atlantic coast 20 kilometers east of Monte Cristi, and the Dominican 

 pueblo of El Duro pn the Monte Cristi-Santiago highway. The 

 1929 expedition was in continuation of archeological and biological 

 investigations initiated in 1928, the immediate problem being a 

 determination of the prehistoric culture and animal life of this 

 semiarid province as contrasted with the humid eastern stretches 

 of the island. Living quarters were established at the sisal planta- 

 tion of Luis Richetti, whose plantation home is located not far dis- 

 tant from the first site to be excavated. Mr. Richetti was of great 

 assistance in locating additional sites in the thick mesquite of the 

 Saddle Mountain area because of his familiarity with the local geog- 

 raphy of Monte Cristi Province. 



The country west of Puerto Plata and Santiago is but poorly 

 watered. The semiarid region includes practically all of Monte 

 Cristi Province and the lower valley of the Rio Yaque del Norte. 

 In the vicinity of the former aboriginal sites where excavations 

 were undertaken, southeast of the town of Monte Cristi, a few 

 houses of Dominican goatherds and beekeepers dot the 40-kilometer- 

 wide area lying between the Rio Yaque del Norte and the Cordillera 

 Septentrional on the north and east. Absence of any continuous 



