20 
dyeing are added to their abstract intellectual achievements — invention of 
positional mathematics with its concomitant development of zero, construc- 
tion of an elaborate chronology with a fixed starting point, use of a time- 
count as accurate as our own Gregorian Calendar, knowledge of astronomy 
superior to that of the ancient Egyptians and Babylonians —and the whole 
* 
Judged in the light of their known cultural limitations, which were on a 
par with those of the early neolithic Age in the Old World, we may acclaim 
them, without fear of successful contradiction, the most brilliant 
aboriginal people on this planet." 
This Quotation is taken from Mor ley's Guide Book to the Ruins of 
Quirigua, " Carnegie Institution of Washington Supplementary Publication 
No. 1 6 , 1935 (PP* i-vii, 1-205) . He who wishes to 'pursue" the Mayas 
further should read Dr, Money's "The Ancient Maya," Stanford University 
Press, 19 } +6 (pp, i-xxxii, 1-520), which has gone through several 
editions, the latest of which is dated 1956 j also John Eric S. 
Thompson's "The Rise and Fall of Maya Civilization," University of 
Oklahoma Press, 195^ (pp. i-xii, 1-2 87 ) , and Alfred M. Tozer, 
"Chichen Itza and its Cenote of Sacrifice, " Memoirs of the Peabody 
Museum, vol. XI and XII, Cambridge, 195? (PP* i-viii, 1-230 and 
231-316) . These works contain excellent and classified bibliographies 
and are well illustrated. 
THE COUNT OF SPEC] 
mm 
m COLLECTS) 
After Tulum, Chichen Itza, and Uxmal, the rest of our Yucatan adventure 
was anticlimax. We subsequently collected along the beach and rocky reef 
at Tancah, and over shoals and marshes and coral growths at the south end 
of Cozumel. It is too early yet to say what we got in species and in 
rarities beyond the few already mentioned. The bulk of our material will 
have to wait the work of the specialists who will identify and report upon it. 
