2 THE INSCRIPTIONS AT COPAN. 
The material is not a lava flow or intrusion, but rather a volcanic mud 
composed of ash laid down in water, a true tuff. A petrographic descrip- 
tion, not only of the inclusions in Stele 3 and D and Altar U, but also of the 
material of the bodies of these monuments as well, by Dr. F. E. Wright, of the 
Geophysical Laboratory (Carnegie Institution) will be found in Appendix I. 
When Stephens, the American traveler and explorer, first visited Copan 
in 1839 the valley was buried in a dense tropical forest, the haunt of the 
monkey and jaguar.!. According to information gathered by Gordon from 
the oldest inhabitants of the small modern village of Copan, this forest was 
cut down some time during the sixties of the last century by colonists from 
Guatemala, who were attracted thither by the fertility of the region.2 These 
colonists and their successors completely cleared the valley, leaving only a 
small grove standing on the Acropolis at the Main Structure; and to-day all 
that remains of this once magnificent jungle are a few giant ceiba and cedar 
trees, whose lofty foliage spreads a grateful shade over the general desolation. 
The region was peculiarly adapted to intensive aboriginal occupation. 
The climate is salubrious for the tropics, the elevation being such as largely to 
eliminate the excessive humidity of the coast plain. “Toward the end of the 
dry season, particularly in April and May, the heat is intense in the middle 
of the day, but the mornings and evenings are always cool and refreshing, and 
indeed the climate is more healthful than that of almost any other Maya 
site. The water-supply is abundant, and the water itself is potable. The 
rainy season begins about the middle of May and lasts until the end of 
December, reaching its height in July. The river is subject to annual 
freshets, when it overflows its banks and inundates the low bottom lands, 
making the soil exceedingly fertile. 
The region enjoys a rich and varied tropical flora. There are many 
useful indigenous species, both cultivated and wild, only a few of the more 
important of which can be enumerated here. 
The two great food staples of Middle America in ancient times, as well 
as to-day, were maize (Zea mays Linneus) and beans (Phase@olus vulgaris 
Linneus), both of which are represented by numerous varieties at Copan 
and are cultivated for specialized purposes, such as rapidity of maturation, 
size of crop, etc. As many as four crops a year may be raised in some 


1Stephens (1841, vol. 1, pp. 90-160) repeatedly mentions the dense vegetation with which the city was envel- 
oped in his time. 
*Gordon, 1896, pp. I, 2, and 1899, p. 42. 
*Popenoe (19194, p. 127) gives the annual rainfall at Copan as between 50 and 70 inches (1.27 to 1.78 meters). 
This estimate is based upon an average annual rainfall of 48.76 inches (1.24 meters) at Guatemala City covering 
the years 1894 to 1902, inclusive (1919, p. 28). 
TSQA chara ss 41.13 inches (1.04 meters). 1899.......41.57 inches (1.05 meters). 
LSOS eee 38.07 inches ( .97 meter). 1900.......60.59 inches (1.54 meters). 
1806..cm om 45-64 inches (1.16 meters). IQGT 24 cen 52.06 inches (1.32 meters). 
ESOT 5. wrk ss 51.36 inches (1.30 meters). 3902. 72-6, 52.32 inches (1.33 meters). 
T8QS Sete. 56.07 inches (1.42 meters). Average for 9 years, 48.76 inches (1.24 meters). 
As the precipitation on the Atlantic side of the Continental Divide in Central America is higher than on the 
Pacific side, it is probable that the annual rainfall at Copan averages at least 15 inches (38 cm.) higher than at 
Guatemala City, and that it is around 65 inches (1.65 meters). 
