114 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



province of Xaragua in the southwest to the Dominican border in the 

 east. 1 In the northern portions of the Republic excavations were made 

 at widely separated Arawak sites : one near Ouanaminthe in the Mas- 

 sacre River valley ; three in the confines of the valley of the Riviere 

 Romeo; and five in the vicinity of the Bay of Forte Liberte, notably 

 near the villages of Paulette and Terrier Rouge ; one on the Riviere 

 Trou, another near Caracol Bay: two near Cap Haitien and Petite 

 Anse in the Plaine du Nord ; one on the Limbe River ; and two in the 

 vicinity of Gros Morne in the valley of Les Trois Rivieres. These 

 sites were trenched to obtain statistical samples of aboriginal pottery 

 and other midden debris for comparison with lots from northern 

 Santo Domingo obtained through excavations in the vicinity of Monte 

 Cristi in 1929. 



In the Cul de Sac and on the Plaine de Leogane, where according to 

 Oviedo the Arawak Xaraguanians practiced a maize and a cassava 

 culture with the aid of irrigation, archeological studies were less pro- 

 ductive due to the obliterating influence of centuries of cropping in an 

 area of garden agriculture. In the arid Plaine clu Hinche and in the 

 more humid Massif du Nord several pottery-yielding sites were lo- 

 cated and cave deposits, previously located by Abbott and Miller, were 

 worked. 



Near the eastern end of the island of Tortua, which is in prox- 

 imity to the Haitian mainland in the vicinity of Port de Paix. cave 

 deposits revealed a succession of occupancies not the least interesting 

 of which are gun flints and other relics of buccaneer days. lie a Vache 

 (Cow Island), located in the Caribbean a few kilometers off the 

 southwestern coast of Haiti in the immediate vicinity of Les Caves, 

 was repeatedly visited by motorboat, while Goat Island, located in the 

 bay within sight of Port-au-Prince, was explored by sailboat. Goat 

 Island is littered with Arawak midden debris, while lie a Vache has 

 four large shell mounds, first sighted by Parish on the Parish-Smith- 

 sonian expedition of 1930. 



The lake region of central I Iaiti, the eastern extension of the Cul 

 de Sac, is of interest because of the progressive lowering of the water 



'The archeological study of Haiti is in continuation of work of a similar 

 nature carried on by the Smithsonian Institution in the Dominican Republic 

 during the years 1928-1930. These several expeditions were sponsored and 

 financed by the veteran explorer Dr. W. L. Abbott, who is responsible for much 

 of our knowledge of the natural history of Haiti and of Santo Domingo. Doctor 

 Abbott's visits to the West Indies extended from 1883 to 1923, since when he has 

 sponsored biological and anthropological expeditions of Smithsonian scientists to 

 Santo Domingo and to Haiti. 



