PANAMA (PAGE TWO) 
There were no mishaps. The party located the site and landed 
in a small jungle clearing. The mounds turned out to be peculiar 
natural formations which had been utilized by the Indians, said Dr. 
Stirling, because of their elevation above the surrounding low ground. 
Later the expedition returned to the same general region and 
set up camp for 11 days. In the two excavations of five sites 
encountered within a short range of the camp evidence of an entirely 
new culture was discovered. Particularly interesting was the long- 
buried pottery with its geometric designs and forms of frogs, turtles, 
snakes, monkeys, and birds. 
A Dangerous Find 
A dangerous find in the vicinity also added to the knowledge 
of science -- although not archeological. A small yellow-fever 
epidemic in the neighborhood had brought to the camp several Panama 
City specialists in tropical diseases. One of the doctors captured a 
haemagogus, a yellow-fever mosquito, the first one he had ever found 
in the field. 
The National Geographic-Smithsonian expedition, after 
completing its work east of the Canal Zone, now has gone on into the 
major region to be excavated, near El Volcan in western Panama. 
There, other burial mounds will be hunted and marked for later 
digging, and surface collections made in the search for links between 
ancient cultures. 
Dr. Stirling, Chief of the Bureau of American Ethnology of 
the Smithsonian, has led nine other expeditions into the Middle- 
America area. He is accompanied by his archeologist wife, Mrs. Marion 
Stirling, and Richard H. Stewart, seasoned expedition representative 
of the National Geographic Society. 
