164 STEPPES AND DESERTS. 



in paintings as surrounding the heads of Saints and Sacred Persons. 

 I have left my drawings of these figures in the colony, but I hope 

 some day to be able to lay them all before the public. I saw ruder 

 figures on the Cuyuwini, a river which empties itself into the Esse- 

 quibo in latitude 2 16' N., entering it from the north-west; and I 

 have since seen similar figures on the Essequibo itself, in 1 40' N. 

 lat. These figures extend, therefore, as ascertained by actual ob- 

 servation, from 7 10' to 1 40' N. lat., and from 57 SO' to 66 

 30' W. long. Thus the zone of pictured rocks extends, so far as it 

 has been at present examined, over a space of 192,000 square geo- 

 graphical miles, comprising the basins of the Corentyn, the Essequibo, 

 and the Orinoco; a circumstance from which we may form some 

 inferences respecting the former amount of population in this part 

 of the continent." 



Other remarkable remains of a degree of civilization which no 

 longer exists, are the granite vases with graceful labyrinthine orna- 

 ments, and the earthen masks resembling Roman ones, which have 

 been discovered on the Mosquito coast, among wild Indians. (Ar- 

 chseologia Britan. vol. v. 1779, pp. 318-324; and vol. vi. 1782, p. 

 107.) I have had them engraved in the " Picturesque Atlas" which 

 accompanies the historical portion of my Travels to the Equinoctial 

 Regions. Antiquaries are astonished at the similarity of these 

 ornaments (resembling a well-known Grecian form) to those of the 

 Palace of Mitla, near Oaxaca, in Mexico. In looking at Peruvian 

 carvings, I have never remarked any figures of the large-nosed race 

 of men, so frequently represented in the bas-reliefs of Palenque in 

 Gruatimala, and in the Aztec paintings. Klaproth remembered 

 having seen individuals with similar large noses among the Chalcas, 

 a northern Mogul tribe. It is well known that many tribes of the 

 North American red or copper-colored Indians have fine aquiline 

 noses; and that this is an essential physiognomic distinction between 

 them and the present inhabitants of Mexico, New Granada, Quito, 

 and Peru. Are the large-eyed, comparatively fair-complexioned 

 people, spoken of by Marchand as having been seen in 54 and 58 

 lat. on the north-west coast of America, descended from an Alano- 

 G-othic race, the Usiini of the interior of Asia? 



