92 REPORT — 1851. 



inown in the neighbourhood under the name of ' el Cercado de los Indies,' and lies 

 on a savannah surrounded with groves of wood, and bounded by the river Maguana. 

 The circle consists mostly of granitic rocks, which prove by their smoothness that 

 they have been collected on the banks of a river, probably at the Maguana, although 

 its distance is considerable. The rocks are mostly each from thirty to fifty pounds 

 in weight, and have been placed closely together, giving the ring the appearance of 

 a paved road, 21 feet in breadth, and, as far as the trees and bushes which had grown 

 up from between the rocks permitted one to ascertain, 2270 feet in circumference. 

 A large granitic rock, 5 feet 7 inches in length, ending in obtuse points, lies nearly 

 in the middle of the circle partly imbedded in the ground. I do not think that its 

 present situation is the one it originally occufjiedj the rock stood probably in the 

 centre. It has been smoothed anil fashioned by human hands ; and although the 

 surface has suffered from atmospheric influence, there is evidence that it was to 

 represent a human figure: the cavities of the eyes and mouth are still visible. 

 This rock has in every respect the appearance of tlie figure represented by Pere 

 Charlevoix in his ' llistoire de I'lle Espagnole ou de Saint-Doniingue,' which he de- 

 signates as a 'Figure trouvee dans une se[)ulture Indienne.' A pathway of the 

 same breadth as the ring extends from it first due west, and turns afterwards at a 

 right angle to the north, ending at a small brook. The pathway is almost for its 

 whole extent overgrown with thick forest; I could not, therefore, ascertain the 

 exact length. No doubt can exist that this circle surrounded the Indian idol, and 

 that within it thousands of the natives adored the deity in the unshapen form of the 

 granite rock. But another question remains to be solved, namely. Were the inha- 

 bitants whom the Spaniards met in the island the constructors of this ring? Were 

 they the adorers of this deity? I think not. * * Among the antiquities recently 

 discovered near San Diego, within a day's march of the Pacific Ocean, at the head 

 of the Gulf of California, were likewise granitic rings or circular walls round vene- 

 rable trees, columns, and blocks of hieroglyphics. If my opinion could possess any 

 value, I should pronounce the granitic ring near San Juan, the figures which 1 have 

 seen cut into rocks in the interior of Guiana, and the scupltured figures, to belong to 

 a race far superior in intellect to the one Columbus met in Hispaniola, who came 

 from the northern parts of Mexico, adjacent to the ancient country or district of 

 Huastecas, and that this race was conquered and extirpated by the nations that in- 

 habited the countries when the Europeans landed. * * 



"I venture to hope that the account of my discoveries of a few monuments that have 

 descended to us of a by-gone race, may not be entirely unacceptable, f intend to 

 commence my journey to the northern provinces, for the execution of which I have 

 already received the permission of Lord Palmerston ; in a few days I promise myself 

 a rich harvest among the ruins of the first settlements and fortifications which the 

 Europeans erected in the New World." 



On the Geography of Kumdon and Garhwdl in the Himalaya Mountains. 

 By Capt. R. Strachey, Bengal Engineers. 



Capt. Strachey began by giving a sketch of the general configuration of the surface 

 of Central Asia, in which he pointed out that the elevated region known as Tibet, 

 formed the summit of a great protuberance above the general level of the earth's 

 surface, of which the two mountain chains, known by the name of the Himalaya and 

 Kouenhen, were nothing more than the south and north faces, these ranges having 

 no definite special existence apart from the general mass. He then proceeded to 

 give a more detailed account of the main physical features of the British provinces 

 of Kuviaon and Garhwdl in the Himalaya, and of the part of Tibet contiguous to our 

 frontier, to which his own observations had been restricted. The plains of northern 

 India extend along the entire southern edge of the Himalaya over about 500,000 

 square miles, nowhere exceeding in elevation 1200 feet above the sea. Fron) these 

 rise the mountains suddenly and in a well-defined line. The exterior range, called 

 the Siwaliks by Dr. Falconer and Col. Cautley, is of no great elevation, hardly ex- 

 ceeding 3000 feet. The characteristic tracts of swamp and dry forest that occur 

 along its southern face, known as Tarai and Bhdbar, and the longitudinal valleys 



