ema ARCHEOLOGY IN BRITISH GUIANA 30 
MISCELLANEOUS NORTHWEST DISTRICT SHELL MIDDENS 
Certain other sites listed by Verrill (1918 a, pp. 18-17) and by 
Osgood (1946, pp. 61-63) can be classified as probably belonging to 
the Alaka Phase. However, the site and artifact descriptions are too 
sketchy to do more than expand the distribution of the Phase. Un- 
doubtedly, other sites could be found by systematic survey. 
A concentrated effort was made by us to relocate the sites of Hobo 
and Atopani (Attibani) on small tributaries of the left bank of the 
Aruka River near the Government Headquarters at Mabaruma (Os- 
good, 1946, Sites +6 and +7, p. 61). Unfortunately, even with the 
help of the present inhabitants of the region, the search was in vain, 
and yet all the local guides knew what we were talking about for 
they constantly made reference to Barambina shell mound. 
Other Alaka Phase sites described by Verrill, and also classified from 
his descriptive data as shell middens by Osgood are Simri (Simiri), 
Hotohana, and Hotokwaia (Osgood, 1946, Appendix: Sites #64, #16, 
and +412, respectively). 
Our guides and workman reported that middens of approximately 
the same size and shape, with the same type and amount of shell 
refuse, rocks, bones, crab remains, and crude tools as those in which 
we were working occurred in the following places (fig. 4): (1) at the 
head of Bamboo, or sometimes called Kamuata Creek, which is the 
next tributary of the Waini River below the Little Kaniaballi Creek; 
(2) at the head of the Waiwa River, a tributary of the Barama River; 
(3) about 15 km. above the mouth of the Waiwa River; (4) at the 
head of the Morebo River; (5) on the Querow (Quiaro) Creek, a 
tributary of the Waini River below Kwabanna Creek. 
WARAMURI SHELL MIDDEN 
Waramuri shell mound was discovered in 1844-45 when the hill was 
cleared for a mission among the Warrau Indians in the Pomeroon 
District. A 20-foot-wide trench was dug into the mound by a school 
teacher, D. Campbell, at the direction of W. H. Brett, a missionary 
interested in the ethnography of British Guiana. The discovery 
created such excitement that the Governor of the Colony came from 
Georgetown in 1866 to view the site. E. F. Im Thurn and W. H. 
Brett both wrote extensive descriptions and it is from their data that 
Osgood drew the information for his excellent summary (1946, p. 25). 
The midden is approximately one-quarter of a mile from Moruka 
near the junction of the Moruka (Moruca) River with the Haimara- 
Cabura (Haimara-cabra) Creek (fig. 4). The midden has also been 
referred to by the name of this Creek. It is 120 feet in diameter and 
rises 20 to 25 feet above the surrounding sand dune, which is 80 to 90 
