22 Timchri. 



several miles across the savannah and bordering upon the river. Here I 

 was rewarded by uncovering numerous fragments of pottery and a careful 

 search resulted in obtaining a number of stone implements, some polished 

 and rounded quartz pebbles, and a perforated amethyst pebble evidently 

 used as a pendant or bead. 



But there was nothing to indicate a large population or any- 

 thing moi'e than the site of a former village, and no traces of 

 graves or of denned kitchen middens could be found. However it 

 proved conclusively that the Abary had been inhabited by Indians in 

 the past and as the neighbouring Mahaica, Mahaicony and Berbice rivers 

 are all inhabited by Arowaks, and have been since the first European 

 settlers' times, and as the implements found were in no way distinct 

 from those found elsewhere, I concluded the settlement was of 

 Arowak origin, — possibly post-Columbian, and that it had been des- 

 troyed by the marauding Caribs or by the Bush Negroes of former days, 

 never to be re-established. 



Then my attention was attracted to one of the small knolls near the 

 river and on which two or three plantain trees gave evidence of former 

 inhabitants. This knoll was several hundred feet from the river and 

 was surrounded on all sides by a deep swamp and almost impenetrable 

 high grass. It rose about ten or twelve feet above the river (and 

 savannah) level and formed a spur or promontory to a low ridge (about 

 six feet in height) extending parallel with the river for about one thousand 

 feet- Directly back from this first knoll was a second, and at three other 

 points on the ridge smaller knolls occurred. Close to the first knoll the 

 ridge was broken by swampy spots or sloughs, thus isolating the knoll 

 and the smaller one behind it, the two forming a sort of dumb-bell shaped 

 eminence. 



After considerable difficulty the knoll was reached, and much to my 

 joy I found a fragment of very old pottery resting on the surface of the 

 ground. The bush was at once cleared and excavations commenced. 

 The first shovelful of earth revealed numerous pieces of pottery and every 

 care was used to avoid breaking the fragments. 



It was absolutely impossible to excavate in the tenacious, wet, 

 muddy soil without doing so ; but it was soon evident that the vessels had 

 already been hopelessly broken through an immense lapse of time. My 

 first idea was, that I had found an old camp or village site, but in a very 

 short time I was disillusioned and I realized that I had discovered some- 

 thing of far more interest and quite unique, for the earthenware was not 

 discarded or broken pots, nor pots unintentionally left by their former 

 owners, but instead, were utensils intentionally placed where found and 

 evidently for some specific purpose. In each and every case a thin 

 layer, about 6 inches, of loam, covered a heavy roughly fashioned piece of 

 baked clay, — evidently the cover to a large vessel, and directly under 

 this were the remains of an immense pot ; collapsed and broken to be 



