ADVERTISEMENT. 



The following memoir gives an account of a large and interesting archaeo- 

 logical collection made by Dr. Bransford while detailed as a medical officer to 

 accompany the expeditions under Commander Lull, United States Navy, which 

 visited Nicaragua and Costa Rica to make surveys for an inter-oceanic ship-canal, 

 and during two subsequent visits, under the order of the Navy Department, to 

 the same region for the purpose of obtaining additional data for the same object. 



This collection comprising 788 articles, deposited in the National Museum, 

 is particularly valuable since all the objects, with the exception of a few obtained 

 by purchase, were dug up by the author and the exact position in which each was 

 found carefully noted. 



The memoir gives the first satisfactory account of the peculiar form of 

 burial in urns practiced on the island of Ometepec ; for while the urns them- 

 selves have been pi'eviously mentioned, their use as coffins has never before been 

 fully described. A description is also given of some mounds, stone graves, 

 images, rock inscriptions, and pottery believed to be distinctively Mexican in 

 form. 



The thanks of the Institution are due to Mr. Ran. Runnels, Dr. Adan Car- 

 denas, and Seiior Don Jose Chamorro, for valuable assistance rendered the author 

 in his investigations. 



The paper was furnished to the Institution in December, 1878, but the 

 author's absence on a cruise to Asia prevented its publication until the present 

 time. 



SPENCER F. BAIRD, 

 Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 



WASHINGTON, D. C., January, 1881. 



383-'" 



