REMAINS, ETC., ETC. 



209 



artistically wrought, and all the lines of the scales were neatly cut in 

 exact proportions. There were also in many parts fainter lines, 

 shewing that the peculiar and graceful arabesques which are wrought 

 by nature on the shell of this amphibious animal, had not been 

 overlooked by the artist. This huge figure, raised on its four legs, 

 was placed upon a large block of concrete sandstone. All its parts 

 were equally true to nature. It was much mutilated, and the human 

 head had been especially injured, but not sufficiently to obliterate the 

 artistic workmanship with which it had been originally chiselled. 



The place where Mr. Norman found these remains had evidently 

 been the site of a large city; and, proceeding with his excavations 

 among huge masses of earth or stones of every size and shape, he 

 was, at length, rewarded by the discovery of another ancient 

 figure. It was merely a human face, in full relief from the block, 

 which was entirely cut away from the top and bottom, but left in 

 two nearly circular projections at the sides. The ornaments on the 

 head are peculiar, and are formed of three balls, with slight inden- 

 tations, connected together by a band running across the top of the 

 cerebrum and terminating at the sides just above the gigantic ears, 

 which are nearly half the size of the face. The features and con- 

 tour of the head are described as not resembling those of the Ameri- 

 can or Mexican Indian in any of their lines. This head is seven- 

 teen inches in length, twenty-one in width, including the ears, and 

 ten in thickness. It was found on the side of a large pile of ruins * 

 the remains of dilapidated walls, of which it had unquestionably 

 formed one of the ornaments. It is to be regretted that Mr. Nor- 

 man was unable to devote more time to the exploration of this re- 

 gion. His antiquarian researches however formed only an episode 

 in his travels through portions of Mexico, and besides this, his labor 

 was exceedingly great in cutting his way through the dense shrub- 

 bery which covers the ground amid a wilderness of trees, matted 

 and woven together with thousands of creepers or plants whose 

 thorns pierced or obstructed him at every moment. He had, more- 

 over, to contend with myriads of annoying insects, and he feared 

 the bite of the poisonous alacranes or the spring of the tiger that 

 sometimes started from the thickets. He received no assistance 

 from the stupid Indians dwelling in the neighborhood. They could 

 not conceive that curiosity alone would prompt any one to encoun- 

 ter the toil and danger which must be endured in explorations in 

 the Tierra Caliente of Mexico, and imagined that the search for 

 gold and buried treasure, rather than antiquities, was his real motive 

 for attempting to penetrate the recesses of their lonely wilderness. 



