monuments in other parts of the world, and who, if not the progenitors of the semi-civilized nations found in Peru at the time of the conquest, certainly preceded them in the occupation of the country. If it should be found, nevertheless, that there has been a gradual development of any of these rude remains into elaborate and imposing monuments, corresponding with them in their purpose or design, or a gradual change from the rough burial chamber of uncut stones into the symmetrical sepulchral tower built of hewn blocks accurately fitted together, and in general workmanship coinciding with the other and most advanced and admirable structures of the country, then we may reasonably infer that the latter were constructed by the same people that built the first, and that, monumentally, at least, the civilization of Peru was indigenous, gradually developed and not intruded. Leaving, however, the very few and obvious deductions I may feel justified in making, for the close of this brief paper, I wish to call attention to three groups of monuments, the chulpas and other remains of Acora, Quellenata, and Sillustani, all in the great terrestrial basin of Lake Titicaca, near that lake, in that political subdivision of the ancient Peruvian Empire called the Collao, and now Department of Puno.

The arable portions of Peru, circumscribed by mountains, cold and sterile punos or table-lands, and bare deserts, early forced the population of the country to a close economy of their cultivable lands, and led them to bury their dead and build their towns in waste places, on arid hillsides above the reach of irrigation, or on rocky eminences and promontories, which even their patient industry could not make productive. In such positions throughout the ancient Collao, we find numberless cemeteries, often in proximity to the ruins of towns and villages. Some of these cemeteries are marked by really imposing monuments, and form conspicuous features in the landscape.

The first and simplest form of the burial monument, and which I shall assume, for the present, to be the oldest, con

sists of flat, unhewn stones of varying lengths set firmly in the ground, projecting above it from one to two feet, so as to form a circle, more or less regular, about three feet in diameter. The body was buried within this circle, in a sitting or crouching posture, and with a vase of pottery or some other utensil or implement at its feet. Sometimes a few flat stones were laid across the upright ones, so as to form a kind of roof, and in a few instances these rude tombs. were placed side by side in long rows, and stones afterwards heaped over them, so as to give them the appearance of lines of ruined walls.

Another rude but more advanced and impressive form of

Fig. 1.

M

Primitive Tomb, Acora.

the tomb consists of large slabs of stone, projecting from four to six feet above the ground, and also set in the form of a circle or square of from six to sixteen feet in diameter. These uprights support blocks of stone, which lap over each other inwardly, until they touch and brace against each other, thus forming a kind of rude arch. A doorway or opening is often found leading into the vault, formed by omitting one of the upright stones.

The arid plain to the south of the town of Acora, near the shores of Lake Titicaca, and twelve miles distant from the ancient town of Chucuito, is covered with remains of this kind, of which Fig. 1 is an example; and on the western border of the plain, at the base of the mountains which

bound it in that direction, are some of the better class of chulpas, round and square, built of worked stones, to which I shall have occasion to allude in another place.

A modification of the second class of chulpas, which I have described, or rather an improvement on them, is to be found among the ruins, so called, of Quellenata to the northeast of Lake Titicaca, in Bolivia (Fig. 2), and at many other places in the ancient Collao. Here the inner chamber or vault is formed, as in the case of those already noticed, by a circle of upright stones, across the tops of which flat stones are laid, forming a chamber, which often has its floor below the general level of the earth. Around this chamber a wall is built, which is carried up to varying heights of from ten to thirty feet. The exterior stones are usually broken to conform to the outer curve of the tower, and the whole is more or less cemented together with a very tenacious clay. Nearly all are built with flaring or diverging walls; that is to say, they are narrower at their bases than at their tops. Sometimes this divergence is on a curved instead of a right line, and gives to the monument a graceful shape. In Quellenata I found only one skeleton in each of the chulpas I examined; and none of the chulpas had open entrances. Similar structures in shape and construction occur in great numbers among what are called the ruins of Ullulloma (Fig. 3), three leagues from the town of Sta. Rosa in the valley of the river Pucura. But here the chulpas have openings into which a man may creep, and all of them contained originally two or more skeletons.

Returning now to Acora. As I have intimated, within sight of the rude burial monuments already noticed as existing there, and which so closely resemble the cromlechs of Europe, are other sepulchral monuments, showing a great advance on those of Quellenata and Ullulloma. They are both round and square, standing on platforms of stones regularly and artificially shaped, and are themselves built of squared blocks of limestone. In common with the primitive

and typical forms of the same class of monuments already described, these also have an inner chamber, vaulted by overlapping stones, after the fashion of the earlier approximations towards the arch. They differ, however, in having each four niches in the chamber or vault, placed at right angles in respect to each other. The sides of these niches converge a little towards their tops, as do most of the Inca niches, windows and doorways. In these niches were fastened

Fig. 3.

Chulpa, Ullulloma, partly ruined.

the bodies of the dead, in squatting or crouching postures.

Figure 4 is a view of a double-sto

ried, square chulpa, with

a pucura or hill fort in the distance, oc

curring near the Bolivian

town of Escoma, on the eastern shore of Lake Titicaca. Figure 5 is a section of this chulpa. I introduce these cuts to show some of the variations in this class of monuments. Escoma is on the same side of Lake Titicaca with Quellenata, but sixty miles to the southward; and it is a curious fact, that while at the latter place all the chulpas are round, at the former they are all square.

The sides of all the square chulpas appear to be perfectly vertical, and near their summits we find a projecting band or