690 MOUNDS IN NORTHERN HONDURAS (ETH. ANN, 19 
found superficially, an urn with pottery animals had inyariably been 
found on digging deeper, I felt almost certain that here, also, they 
would be discovered toward the center of the mound. But though 
an excavation 15 by 8 feet was made through the center down to the 
ground level, nothing further was brought to light. 
UNEXCAVATED MOUNDS 
Turning next to those mounds at Santa Rita which have not as yet 
been excavated, we find that the first of these, 18 on the plan, is 
by far the largest mound on the estate, and is indeed the largest 
mound that I have seen in the colony. It is situated 100 yards almost 
due south of the large central mound, is 412 yards in circumference, 
oval in shape, flat on the top, and 10 feet high. This mound has never 
been dug into. 
Mound 19 is very similar to. the last and is in line with it and the 
large central mound. It is 10 feet high at its highest part, roughly 
circular at the base, and 270 yards in circumference. 
Mound 20 on the plan is situated 400 yards southwest of the large 
central mound. It resembles in shape the two preceding mounds, but 
ismuch the smallest and lowest of the three, being 83 yards in cir- 
cumference, flat at the top, circular at the base, and 35 feet high at 
its highest point. 
These three mounds have been described as being typical of a class 
of mound which is numerous in the bush all round the estate and 
throughout the whole of the northern district of the colony. Mounds 
18 and 20 exhibit the greatest variation in size and height found 
among this class, all the members of which are intermediate in size 
between these two. I have opened only one of these mounds as yet, but 
as nothing was discovered inside except potsherds, I was not much 
encouraged to proceed with the excavation of the others. 
Mound 21 is situated about 1,000 yards southwest of the large 
central mound. It is almost semicircular in shape, and is 30 yards in 
length, measured along the curve. The east end is much broader and 
higher than the west; the mound, in fact, resembles the half of a pear, 
in which the stem has been bent round through a semicircle toward 
the head. The mound is 5 feet high and 24 feet broad at its head, 
and gradually lessens till it is only 8 feet high and 8 feet broad at its 
tail. The convexity faces north, the concavity south. At the point 
marked 22 on the plan there are several of these mounds yery like the 
one just described, both in shape and size. A number of similarly 
shaped mounds are found in the bush surrounding the estate, and in 
other parts of the district they are common. At Sateneja, a village 
on the coast about 20 miles from Santa Rita, a large number of these 
mounds of various sizes are so arranged as nearly to inclose a roughly 
