226 Artificial Mounds of the Island of Marajó, Brazil. (April, 
calities on the shores of the lake have yielded a similar kind of 
pottery, but these places have not been investigated. 
About six or seven leagues to the west of Arary, on the banks 
of the Camutins, there exists another well-known group of mounds, 
and a league farther are over fifteen others of large and small size. 
The plain is here also very low and subject to inundations, the 
.greatest natural elevations not rising more than one or two metres 
above the water during the rainy season. ‘A narrow strip of for- 
est usually borders the margin of the: river where the mounds, 
also wooded, are generally encountered; there are, however, 
other mounds situated upon the plain. The principal mound of 
the Camutins, known by the same name, is a veritable hill, having 
a height of fifteen metres above the plain, and with its sides so 
steeply inclined as to render their ascent on horse-back quite dif- 
ficult. The outline of the mound is elliptical, its length being 
two hundred and ten metres, and its breadth at the base about 
eighty metres; but at the summit it is much narrower. The sides 
are furrowed by the rain which commences to excavate in holes 
made for the purpose of procuring zguacabas, which are in great 
demand as receptacles for farinha. In these furrows the earth is 
seen to be full of pottery and ashes as at Pacoval. As a stronger 
evidence of the artificial origin of the mound there is found near 
ita large excavation, similar to those sometimes formed in rail- 
road grading, and from which, without doubt was obtained the 
material for constructing the mounds. This excavation is on the 
opposite side of the river, and near it is another mound almost 
equal in size to that of Camutins. A few hundred metres below 
the mound of Camutins, on the same side of the river, is a third 
mound of less height, but broader and probably longer. This 
last is situated in a bend of the river, being surrounded by water 
on three sides. 
These three mounds all extend in different directions, indi- 
cating that their position is without significance. They all have a 
more or less elliptical or oval form, but this seems to have been 
accidental, as there is no evidence that they were constructed ac- 
cording to any definite plan. It is quite different with the North 
American mounds, which in other respects closely resemble those 
of Brazil. In the former country they often assume the outline of 
a geometrical figure or of some animal. 
According to the statements of the inhabitants there are in the 
