in the year 1545, the northern portion of which they called "Capatania de la Nueva Granada." This included the coast land between the Gulf of Darien and the Cape de la Hacha, reaching the first degree north latitude. The interior part of this Spanish colony occupied a considerable extent of the region of the Andes, the inhabitants of which were represented as a "timid and quiet people." The gold trinkets we have alluded to were here, as elsewhere, used for ornaments by the chief or cacique, as well as the community in general, though a distinct class of ornaments seems to have been reserved for the chiefs. The principal object of the new visitors was gold, which was eagerly sought for in any form, Glass beads, and articles made of iron or steel, which were great novelties to the Indians, were readily bartered in exchange for their gold ornaments. There were, however, some ornaments they were very unwilling to part with; such as images of the chief and his wife in a sitting posture, made of gold, about ten inches high, and 16 ounces weight, and some other imitations of various animals, which were used as ornaments in the dwellings of the chiefs, and were regarded as superior articles of art. These were the cause of the first attack on the property of the inhabitants. In revenge for the outrages they suffered from their oppressors, when gold ornaments became scarce, they refused to show where they obtained this metal in its natural state.

The ornaments obtained by the first visitors being regarded merely as articles of commerce, they were mostly melted into ingots, so that very few of those specimens of early art remained; but as they were in the habit of burying some of their ornaments in the tombs of the caciques, and as some of these burial-places are occasionally discovered, samples of these ancient ornaments have been secured, which furnish interesting illustrations of the first attempt in this branch of industry. We shall, therefore ceed to describe

THE INDIAN TOMBS.

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Burials were performed by the Peruvians in two different ways, above and below ground. The still existing elevated mounds remind us of the Egyptian catacombs, though those of the Peruvians are smaller, and constructed of stone and earth. These monuments of the Incas are of a pyramidal form and different dimensions, some being more than one hundred and fifty feet high, and are known by the name "Cucara." They are built in subdivisions formed of large slabs of slate. In one of these divisions

the body was placel, and in another the utensils and ornaments. Sometimes gold in its natural state was left in an earthenware vessel, mixed with pounded charcoal. When the chief or governor was interred, an imitation of the sun or the moon was placed in the tomb. The sun was represented by a flat, round plate of gold, or alloy of copper, about an eighth of an inch thick, and sometimes more than twenty inches in diameter. The moon was made of a silver plate, showing the half moon. A neck ring and bracelets, a waist band and ankle rings, made of gold, sometimes alloyed with copper, were also left with the body of a chief These rings are from one and a quarter to two inches in width, and opened and closed as a spring, They are thin and perfectly equal in width and thickness throughout. In fact, they are so perfect that it is difficult to imagine how such laminated rings were produced, considering the deficiency of suitable implements for such delicate and exact work. There are several of these tombs above ground still to be seen.

The excavated tombs,as found in our times, are all alike throughout South America. The Spanish conquerors having entered the territory of "la Capitana de la Neuva Granada," and collected all the gold they could among the Indians, turned their attention to the natural sources of gold, and also to the burial places, which soon became objects of much interest to the gold seekers. These tombs are always found on some isolated range with sharp outlines, so situated as not to admit of any water accumulating, and no apparent probability of water being led to it. In hills so situated the excavations are discovered by observing certain concavities on the surface; but where a thick forest exists, with a dense undergrowth, often of several feet, it is necessary to clear the ground by fire. It is generally allowed that a long period has elapsed since these tombs were closed, as by the accounts of the Mexicans and Peruvians, given at the time of the conquest, their calculations amounted to about two thousand years. The excavation is circular and perpendicular, and three or four feet in diameter, dug out of the decomposed syenitic rock. At the depth of nine to eleven feet charcoal is found among the soil, under which a flat stone (some kind of slate) covers the pit, on removing which the edge of a perpendicular slab is observed. At about four feet deeper the bottom of the tomb is reached, and on the perpendicular slab being removed, a horizontal excavation is seen towards the east. This is about four feet in height and the same in width but somewhat more in length. Here the bones of the defunct are

found, the body having been placed in a sitting posture, with the face towards the east, that is towards the rising sun, regarded as the "King of the Heavens." The bones are generally found in such a decayed state that they will not admit of being handled. The earth, which has more or less fallen in and mingled with the remains, is gathered and brought under the washing process, and the trinkets thus obtained are partly of gold, with its natural alloy (silver), and partly gold with copper. On one side of the remains a large earthenware vessel is found, covered with a piece of slate, and in some instances a sediment has been found deposited from the drink, the Indian "chicha," left with the deceased. On the opposite side, perfectly decayed, ears of Indian corn have been found. In a niche cut out of the end of a tomb, a vase of earthenware is sometimes found, covered with a stone, and filled with pounded charcoal, in which the remaining trinkets and gold-dust, left with the occupant of the grave, had been deposited. Implements for smelting gold, and some tools made of gold and copper, are sometimes, though but rarely, found in the pot occupying the niche. The Spaniards, who during three centuries have gathered gold from the fluvial deposits, have found many of these burial places very remunerative.

Some localities show that systematically arranged cemeteries have formerly existed where two excavations in the centre, of greater depth than the surrounding ones, were found. The deep graves appear to have been appropriated to the chiefs and their families, and the numerous others to the inferior classes. These burying places are termed "Pueblo de Indios," but these larger cemeteries are now seldom found. Traditional accounts of certain localities are still preserved and eagerly sought after, where great treasures are said to have been buried. In like manner reports are often heard of rich fluvial deposits of a more recent date, where the proprietor is said to have had a measure corresponding to about twenty to twenty-five pounds weight, on collecting his weekly produce. This may be regarded as probable, if we consider that as many as from two to three hundred African slaves were often employed in mining pursuits by one proprietor.

The foregoing narrative supplies a proof that the aboriginal inhabitants of South America had some indefinite notion of a future state; they appear to have believed "that their deceased relative or friend had a long way before him," and that he would require some refreshment in his long journey to "reach the stars." This idea still extensively prevails."

ARTICLE X.-On the Pre-carboniferous Flora of New Bruns-. wick, Maine, and Eastern Canada. By J. W. Dawson, LL.D., F.G.S., &c.

(Read before the Natural History Society.)

The known flora of the rocks older than the Carboniferous system, has until recently been very scanty, and is still not very extensive. In Goeppert's recent memoir on the flora of the Silurian, Devonian, and Lower Carboniferous rocks,* he enumerates 20 species as Silurian, but these are all admitted to be Algæ, and several of them are remains claimed by the zoologists as zoophytes, or trails of worms and mollusks. In the Lower De. vonian he knows but 6 species, five of which are Algæ, and the remaining one a Sigillaria. In the middle Devonian he gives but one species, a land plant of the genus Sagenaria. In the upper Devonian the number rises to 57, of which all but 7 are terrestrial plants, representing a large number of the genera occurring in the succeeding Carboniferous system.

Goeppert does not include in his enumeration the plants from the Devonian of Gaspé, described by the author in 1859,† having seen only an abstract of the paper at the time of writing

Journal of Geological Society of London, also Canadian Naturalist. ΟΑΝ. ΝΑΤ.

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VOL. VI. No. 3.

his memoir, nor does he appear to have any knowledge of the plants of this age described by Lesquereux in Rogers' Pennsylvania. These might have added ten or twelve species to his list, some of them probably from the Lower Devonian. It is further to be observed, that certain specimens found in the Upper Ludlow of England,* appear to prove the presence of Lepidodendron in that formation; and that in the paper above referred to, I have noticed specimens from the Gaspé limestone which seem to me to indicate the occurrence of Psilophyton and Noeggerathia or Cordaites in the Upper Silurian of Canada.

It thus appears that, according to our present knowledge, the plant life of the land, so rich in the coal formation, dies away rapidly in the Devonian, and only a few fragments attest its existence in the Upper Silurian. Great interest thus attaches to these oldest remains of land plants; and fragmentary though they are and often obscure, they merit careful attention on the part of the geologist and botanist.

No locality hitherto explored, appears more favourable to the study of this ancient vegetation, than those parts of Eastern America to which this paper relates. The Gaspé sandstones have already afforded six Devonian species, some of them of great interest, and in a remarkably perfect state of preservation; and from beds of similar age in New Brunswick and Maine, I am now prepared to describe at least ten species, most of them new. This already raises the species found in the band of Devonian rocks, extending through the north-eastern States of the Union, and the eastern part of British America, to one-third of the number found in all other parts of the world; and the character of the containing rocks, the number of nondescript fragments, and the small amount of exploration hitherto made, justify the hope that a much larger number may yet be discovered.

Of the plants described in this paper, only a few have been discovered by myself. The greater part are from the following sources. (1) The collection of Mr. G. F. Matthew, of St. John, New Brunswick; (2) a collection from Perry, Maine, made by Mr. Richardson for the Geological Survey of Canada; (3) specimens from Perry in the collection of the Natural History Society of Portland. Several of these plants have been long known. Some of those found at St. John are noticed by Dr. Gesner in his re

* Murchison's Siluria, p. 152, Journal Geol. Socy. Vol IV.