662 MOUNDS IN NORTHERN HONDURAS [ETH. ANN.19 
from seaward, the main, if not the only, direction from which they 
might be expected. The soil upon the plateau is remarkably produc- 
tive. The only apparent drawback to the location is that the nearest 
fresh-water supply, namely, Rio Nuevo, is at a distance of several miles; 
but, as will be shown, this defect was remedied by the construction of 
underground reservoirs. 
When the work of excavation among these mounds was first begun, 

Fic. 4—Plan of mounds at Santa Rita. 
in 1896, thirty-two of the original number were intact. Of these, six- 
teen have, up to the present time, been thoroughly explored, and it is 
the object of the present paper to give some account of their construc- 
tion and contents. 
For descriptive purposes the explored mounds may be divided into 
three classes, as follow: 
1. Mounds constructed over buildings. 
2. Mounds containing 
g, superficially, two broken pottery images, and 
