III
ROCK-CARVINGS
IN
THE ISLAND OF
CEIBA.
CEIBA has certainly been densely populated in ancient times. This fact is testified by the rich quantities of relics discovered there from time to time. In Rivas Dr. Flint showed me objects of bronze, stone, and earthen-ware as well as small ornaments of thin golden plate, spirally twisted glass-staves a. o., that were found in Ceiba. And although my own excavations did not turn out so productive as I had been led to expect by the rich treasures I had seen from the island, they, however, yielded extremely valuable contributions to my collection. These will be spoken of below, in connection with the results of my diggings in Zapatera and Ometepec. No statues are now to be found in the island, but it is reported by tradition that several were formerly to be found at the north side of the island, which were carried off long ago to a hacienda in the isthmus. These statues are said to have been comparatively small-sized. On the other hand, the island is rich in rock carvings, and its highest point, a flat mountain ridge, level as floor, has, from this cause, received the name of Cerro de Pantheon. This mountain ridge is, in my opinion, the continuation of that edge of a crater which surrounds Bahia de Chiquero. The carvings found on its south-western spur, Punta de Pantheon, cut in the solid rock at a depth of two meters below the lowest surface of the lake, prove that the island has sunk at a late period, and thus corroborate my hypothesis of the
