The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1895-05-22
CAVES OF YUgATAN.
Narrative Of the EsIscoverac OF d
Scientfst-EIEs Ded ncifons.

Scieutfst-EHEs Ded ucifons.
Henry c.. Mercer has written to the
Numismatic and Antiquarian Society an
account of the expedition, undertaken ny
o w. Corwith, of Cincinnati, and NM
self. in Behalf of the Department OF Ar
chaeology of the University, in expior-
ing the caves of Yucatan.
The mountains of Yucatan he found to
be honeycombed with caves. The direct
object Of his search was the vestges Oh
early man in these caves. Unllke other
caves he had explored, he found they
were entered. like wells, from an open
ing in the top, through which one must
let ones self down with ropes, by the
roots of trees, or by the rude ladders
built by the Indians.
AT first it appeared unlikely that they
would furnish the conclusive evidence
| desired, on account of their difhculty OF
| access, but he soon discovered they were
only places where water could De o.
tanned in the dry season, and must nave
been r~esorted to by any people nVlnS IN
that country. There is no surface WdteI'
running springs or brooks in 1ucatan.
This led the Indian at the earnest Times
All of them contain human remains,
| and large stone dishes to eaten tne
water that trickles down from me rooL,
WGllG lHS llOCl -
ments of pottery. -
Mr.. Mercer gave a graphic description
of the caves. They are iligmlnaeeo 4 ~
crust has broken through at the top.
Trees nave thrown down their ROOFS
through this orihee. Hegitatdoa nag ?
fairy-Iike scene in the dl1used Igmt
from the opening above. Ihey VARY
greatly in their character, some peins
| intensely hot, others COOL; somg eoM Oh.
nssativeIy easy of access, others dIfncult;
/. some drop water from the stalactess
| while others are now dry; ana sonls are
animal dens and are oreaoeu ny Lug
The walls Of some bear petroglyphs, NOT
| hieroglyphs in the true sense, pue Pr
| lures and incised lines. In one q pro9eo.-
inc stalagmite was cut in the form OF an
+ was the cave floor. however; that "a
was the object of the explorers attack.
Trenches were dug in the Hoors avn ~
the bedrock. Sections of the cave noorS
were shown by diagrams. : e6aslsI "a
of cave earth. With bands OF asnes n
| mould. and were filled with fragments o.
| pottery. This pottery did not vary from
| top to bottom; that IN the lower aay en
| There were no traces of any other people
of palaeolfthic man, CT OF any lnala44s
other than the Mayas, whose descendants
Lotan was one of the most interestlng
| and beautiful. This cave was entered oy
a steep incline. followed by stone steps
and ladders made of saplings by the In
| dams. Passing through a marrow, pas
sage within which were stone walls, as
if the cave had been barred against IN
| trusion or attack, one entered a great
/ chamber, $50 feet in height, with a nat-
| ural skylight at the top. The moor; nke
all the caves. was mined with rat-holes.
Openings in the. great chamber LED INTO
passages in which the explorer mlgnt
| easily lose his way. The place was wild
| and romantic t~ranscending description.
In conclusion, Mn. Mercer summarized
the results of his work. The people who
came to the cave possessed the art OF
| making pottery, and it would appear
! from this that the Mayas developed their
culture elsewhere, before they came to
Yucatan. AS nothing was found beioW
! their remains, there was no palaeolithic
| man, or other Indian than the Maya, IN
Yucatan.
Compared with the ave deposits of
Europe, they are much more recent.
| There does not appear to be any remains
of pleistocene animals, though the few
bones found have not been critically ex-
| amined. Only three or four arrowheads
were found. From this Mr.. Mercer con
cluded they were not hunters. and alst
that they had no domestic animals. He
floor reached representing the actual bot
| tom, but the affirmative evidence seemed
conclusive.
President Brinton stated that these inn
portant and novel Observations CORES
sponded with the traditions OF the Maya,
who, according to their statement, first
| appeared in the country in the second
or third to imply that they found it I'M
MISUNDERSTANDING,