256 The American Naturalist. [March, 



derground layer of human refuse substantially the same in all the 

 caves, instructive as it was, had taught us but little of details. Evi- 

 dently a wide range of tools and implements had not been left, lost or 

 broken in the subterranean rooms. We did not find, and did not 

 expect to find, that the water producing underground chambers had 

 been used as burying places. Neither were they dwellings, but rather 

 temporary halting spots, which, but for the water supply, would prob- 

 ably have shown fewer human traces than do the caves of the United 

 States. Human bones scattered in the rubbish indicated that the old 

 inhabitants of Yucatan practiced cannibalism.. Beyond that, the 

 traces of pre-Columbian cookery at tbe underground sites referred to 

 an ancient cave visitor, who was rather an agriculturist than a hunter, 

 and who (unless the dog found at Sabaka be an exception) possessed 

 no domestic animals. 



" We had learned little of stone chipping, and had found in tbe 

 scanty list of stone blades but one imperfect point that might have 

 served for an arrowhead. The secret of stone carving we had failed 

 to discover, and though the whole mystery had seemed within our 

 grasp at Oxkintok, we had to rest content with proving that the chis- 

 elling of the ruins could not have been done with chips of the parent 

 block or round hammer stones. We had found no copper, or gold, or 

 silver, no jade, no gums, no preserved grains, no cloth, no apparatus 

 for weaving, and had discovered no pipe, and learned nothing of pre- 

 Columbian smoking or tobacco. 



" A close examination of the potsherds showed a ware mixed with 

 powdered limestone that reacted strongly under acid on the fractures. 

 A smooth red make, strong, wellbaked, and symmetrical, and whose 

 dull polished surface resisted the action of nitric acid, was abundant, 

 while a very few fragments were decorated with brightly colored de- 

 signs, though their polish, after the manner of varnish, yielded readily 

 to the acid test. Many, though better baked than the ware of the 

 Delaware Indians, were coarse. A very common hard variety had 

 been striped with brown lines on a white or bluish background. But 

 there was nothing brilliant or striking about these fragments of dishes, 

 cooking pots, or water jars. Few were ornamented, and only two or 

 three highly so. None were marked with hieroglyphs. Nevertheless, a 

 variety of tones, colors, and polish struck the eye when many sherds 

 were laid side by side and brushed. 



" But results more important than these had rewarded our close ex- 

 amination of the position and contents of the human rubbish heap 

 everywhere present in the caves. Though this layer was the only cul- 



