GANS] CONTENTS OF MOUND 8 687 
been used solely for sepulchral purposes. It was one of the smallest 
mounds explored, being only 15 yards in circumference and 33 feet in 
height at its highest point. It was nearly circular at the base and flat 
on top, and was built of earth and rough blocks of limestone. Nearly 
in the center of the mound, at the ground level, a human skeleton was 
discovered, the head pointing toward the north. The bones were 
so brittle that in the attempt to remove them they were very much 
damaged. The skull was full of earth, and, while being lifted out, it 
collapsed into numberless pieces from its own weight and that of the 
earth which it contained. The fragments of the bones were removed, 
and, after exposure to the air for a few days, they hardened consider- 
ably and could be handled without injury to them. The bones were 
apparently those of a male of from 5 feet 4 inches to 5 feet 6 inches 
in height. Lying by the side of the skeleton were a conch shell with 
the apex broken smoothly off, as if it had been used as a trumpet, 
numerous broken pieces of conch shells, a roughly chipped flint spear- 
head 43 inches in length, and an oval flint hammer stone. Associated 
with these two latter implements were four sharp-pointed conical 
pieces of shell, the ends of which had evidently been ground to a 
point as if for use as boring implements. They were manufactured 
from the whorls in the interior of conch shells. The contents of this 
mound appear so unlike to the contents of the other mounds at 
Santa Rita that one can not help thinking that it belongs either to a 
different people or a different period. This supposition is rendered 
more probable by the fact that along the shores of the Chetumal bay, 
a few miles from Santa Rita, the sea is rapidly encroaching and expos- 
ing interments very similar to the one described, except that in most 
cases no mound marks the position of the grave. The sharp shell 
implements are invariably to be found in these graves, together with 
pottery and flint implements, all exceedingly rude and archaic. 
UNCLASSIFIED MOUNDS 
Three hundred and ninety yards to the northwest of the large central 
mound was situated the mound marked 8 in the plan. This mound 
was roughly circular, flat on the top, 90 yards in circumference, and 5 
feet high at its highest part. I was informed by some of the old 
laborers on the estate that some years previously, while stones were 
being dug from this mound for the purpose of erecting a tank, a num- 
ber of what they described as large stone idols had been discovered. Of 
these [ was, unfortunately, unable to discover the subsequent history; 
but there can be little doubt that, together with the other stones, they 
were squared for building purposes. This is rendered more probable 
by the fact that in examining a well close at hand, which had been built 
at that time, I discovered a large stone tiger’s head projecting inward 
from the masonry, into which it had been built. As, however, the 
whole mound had not been dug down I set to work excavating that 
