In the Stann Creek district of British Honduras, on the banks of the Sittec River, at a distance of approximately 15 miles from its mouth, there exists an extensive clearing in the bush known as "Kendal Estate." The soil here is remarkably fertile and well suited for the cultivation of every kind of tropical vegetable product. As has been pointed out before, wherever throughout northern Central America one finds patches of exceptionally rich soil, there, on clearing the bush, will be found in greater or less numbers the mounds erected by the former inhabitants, together with the indestructible refuse usually associated with former village sites, as fragments of pottery, flint and obsidian chips, broken and rejected implements and weapons, shells of various edible shellfish, clay beads, net sinkers, malacates, broken rubbing stones, etc. The converse of this holds true to some extent, as one of the guides relied on by the modern degenerate Maya Indian in his annual selection of land for a milpa, or corn plantation, is the number of mounds which he finds upon it. Indeed this remarkable index as to the degree of fertility of the soil appears to be almost the only useful heritage transmitted to him by his courageous and comparatively highly civilized ancestors.
Mound No. 11
Mound No. 11, at Kendal, occupies a conspicuous position upon the summit of a small natural elevation, situated on the left bank of the river close to its margin. It is 60 feet long, 40 feet broad, and 20 feet high, its long diameter running due east and west. An excavation was made into the north slope of the mound, which exposed a three-walled chamber, 8 feet in length by 4 feet 8 inches in width. There was no wall on the south side. The north wall, owing to the outer slope of the mound trending over it, was only 1 foot in height; the east and west walls were each 4 feet high. All three walls were about 18 inches thick. The chamber was packed with water-worn boulders and earth, among which nothing was found but scattered patches of charcoal, with a few small red pots, so rotten and friable from long exposure to the damp that it was found impossible to remove them. Had there ever been bones in the chamber, as seems probable, they must have completely disintegrated long before from contact with the damp clay. The floor was composed of flags of shale. About the center of the west wall a recess was discovered 2 feet wide by 11/2 feet high. This was half filled with earth, in which the following objects were found:
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 64 PLATE 16.
a. MODEL OF JADEITE BIVALVE SHELL. b. LIGHT-GREEN JADEITE MASK. c. AX HEAD, OR CELT.