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cautiously and secretly made farther search, and were successful 
in obtaining other specimens. They proceeded to make exca- 
vations, not continuously, but as circumstances permitted, until 
the I St May, 1859, when their concealed operations became 
known to the inhabitants of the neighbourhood. The report 
of the discovery of treasure soon attracted numbers of diggers, 
and, by the middle of May, more than a thousand persons were 
engaged in ransacking the graves of this huacal, or ancient 
place of burial, which is situated in the district of Boqueron, 
parish of Bugaba, about 25 miles from David, and 15 miles 
only from the sea, in a direct line. 
The original discoverers have admitted that, prior to this 
influx of treasure-seekers, they had collected about 130 pounds 
weight of golden figures, many of which were alloyed with 
copper. 
Dr. J. King Merritt spent several weeks, in the summer of 
1859, in examining the then newly-discovered burial-grounds of 
Chiriqui. 
Two forms of graves (huacas) were observed — circular or 
oval, and rectangular. The oval graves were from four and 
a half to six feet deep, and from three to four feet in their 
greatest diameter. A wall of rounded river stones, two and 
a half feet high, was built as a lining round the grave at 
the bottom. From the top of this wall to the surface the 
grave was filled with river pebbles. The gold ornaments, 
pottery, and other antiquities were chiefly found in the walled 
space beneath the deposit of pebbles. The circular and oval 
graves yielded the most figures of gold, and the finest specimens 
of pottery. The gold figures were sometimes inserted in the 
crevices of the wall, but in no instance had they been placed 
in the earthen vessels found associated with them. No human 
remains were met with in the oval huacas ; but a layer of black 
loam was interposed between the relics and the pebble deposit. 
The quadrangular huacas were, in some instances, constructed 
in the same manner as the oval graves ; there was the same 
wall of rounded pebbles, above which the entire spaxe was 
filled with pebbles. The quadrangular graves of this descrip- 
tion were larger, and yielded more relics, than the other quad- 
rangular graves. They were freely interspersed with the oval 
graves in the northern and western parts of the huacal, but 
were more numerous in the southern portion of it. Some 
of these huacas measured nearly six feet deep, seven feet long, 
and four and a half feet broad. The relics were found usually 
