NO. 14 ARCHEOLOGY OF BAY ISLANDS, HONDURAS STRONG 3 



Others at a later time. The frontispiece and the text figures in the 

 present report are the work of E. G. Cassedy, artist of the Bureau of 

 American Ethnology. Finally, I am very grateful to my wife, Jean 

 Stevens Strong, for numerous translations and other technical and 

 critical assistance. 



ENVIRONMENTAL BACKGROUND 



" Las Islas de la Bahia " are a charming and comparatively little- 

 known group of islands lo to 40 miles north of the northern coast of 

 Spanish Honduras. Located on the Caribbean Sea, not far east of the 

 entrance to the Gulf of Honduras, they are clearly visible from the 

 mountainous mainland (see map, fig. i). The group is made up of 

 three large islands, Utila (Utilla),' Eoatan (Roatan, Ruatan, Guay- 

 ama), and Bonacca (Guanaja, Guanassa), and the smaller islands, or 

 island groups, Helena (Masa, Elena, Helen), Barburata (Borburata, 

 Barbareta, Barbaretta), Morat (Goamoreto, Murat), and, closest to 

 the mainland, the two Hog Islands (Cayos Cochinos). Roatan is the 

 largest with a length of about 30 miles and a maximum width of 9 

 miles. Helena is really a small eastern extension of Roatan, being 

 separated by a mangrove swamp and a narrow, in part artificial, 

 channel. Bonacca is the second largest and is even more mountainous 

 than Roatan. Utila is third in size and is low, swampy, and heavily 

 forested. Barburata, Morat, and the Hog Islands are all small and 

 rugged. With the exception of low-lying Utila, the islands, covered 

 with dark green forest, rise majestically out of the blue tropical sea in 

 a most alluring fashion. 



The island chain is formed by the tops of a great submerged east- 

 to-west mountain range, around which coral reefs have formed and 

 rich soil has accumulated. Bonacca is the highest of the islands, a peak 

 near the center reaching 1,200 feet. Roatan has a mountainous west-to- 

 east backbone which reaches a height of 800 feet at the wes'^ern end. 

 Utila is the lowest of all, having only one hill 290 feet high at the 

 eastern end. The formations are for the most part limestone, and the 

 islands are surrounded by intricate coral reefs, some above the surface 

 of the sea but most of them marked only by white lines of breaking 

 surf. In the interior valleys a rich alluvial soil occurs, the product of 

 decaying vegetation, and the hills are covered with red clay, which 

 usually supports a dense vegetation. There are no rivers on any of the 



^ I follow the orthography given in the 1925 edition of the U. S. Hydrographic 

 office, " Map of the Western Shore of the Caribbean ", except that the names 

 Borburata and Murat are changed to Barburata and Morat to conform to local 

 usage. The following brief ecological account is based on standard works on the 

 region, the majority of which will be cited later, and on personal observation. 



