PAPERS RELATING TO ANTHROPOLOGY. 815 



The padre and I made a trip to Santa Cruz on the 3d of March, re- 

 turning next day. We heard great accounts of antiquities on the Pacific 



coast, and one small figure No. was obtained by purchase. One 



of the men who worked for me at Las Huacas brought Nos. , 



which he reported that he obtained working at the same place. ISTos. 



were lying together beside a skull, and were, presumably, 



worn as a necklace. 



With a party of about a dozen men the padre and I left Mcoya on the 

 morning of the 6th, and following the road to Matina for awhile, turned 

 to the right to Matambu, thence over a ridge into the valley of the IsTo- 

 sara, and camped on that stream at a place called Las Canillas, about 

 a mile beyond the casiia of Bias Lopez. This man Lopez had a great 

 reputation for knowledge of the antiquities of the region, but was a 

 very suspicious and surly Indian, and managed to keep to himself all 

 that he knew of the huacas. Close by a mango tree, near our camp, 

 some partial excavations had been made, and in one of them we com- 

 menced work. The first plateau, above the low grounds of the river, 

 was some 25 feet above low water. In the edge of this the burials had 

 been made, and the top of the grave covered to a depth of 3 feet with 

 stones from the river-bed, the pile forming a slight mound now, after 

 ages of settling, about 2 feet above the surface of the plateau. These 

 resembled some graves seen on the Madera end of Ometepec* The clay 

 here was tough, but not so hard as at Las Huacas, as it contained more 

 vegetable matter and was protected in the shade of the forest. In tlie 

 surface soil and among the stones were fragments of pottery. Celt No. 

 59875 was 3 feet below the top of the mound, with the little vessel, No. 

 59883, near it. In a neighboring excavation was found a human skele- 

 ton and a celt. No. 59880. A mound larger than the others was some 

 distance back of the edge of the i)lateau. 



Discouraged by such poor results for two days of work, we trans- 

 ferred our camp some 3 miles further up the stream. Here in a higher 

 plateau on the left side of the river similar piles of stones, hardly 

 deserving the name of mounds, were seen on all sides. We were in the 

 finest forest I had ever seen. Apparently not one of the magnificent 

 trees in this valley had been cut since the conquest, except where for 

 an acre or so in two places clearings had been made. The undergrowth 

 was scanty, while high overhead there was a dense canopy supported 

 by superb columns. The rays of the sun touched the ground at rare in- 

 tervals, while at night a star here and there peeped through the foliage. 

 Along the river innumerable frogs made night hideous with their croak- 

 ing. Then owls and many night-birds of discordant note, reenforcing 

 the howling monkeys, joined forces in the early night to convince the 

 trembling greenhorn that all the ferocious beasts of the earth were as- 

 sembled to sup on him. The mosquitoes, which were vicious the first 

 two hours, suddenly disappeared, and the forest quieted down. The 



•Archaeological Researches in Nicaragua, p. 44. 



