huge tributary of the Tocantino, there are similar rude outlines of animals near a rapid called Martirios, from the first Portuguese explorers fancying they recognized the instruments of the Passion in the clumsy representation. Dr. Ladisláu Netto (_a_) gives the illustration, reproduced as Fig. 111, of an inscription discovered by Domingos S. Ferreira Penna on the rock called Itamaraca, on the Rio Xingu. Dr. Netto’s description is translated as follows: [Illustration: FIG. 111.--The rock Itamaraca, Brazil.] This whole inscription seems to represent one idea, figuring a collection of villages of vast proportions, inclosed by fortifications on two sides, at which it seems most accessible. On these same sides this collection of villages has external constructions or means of security, a kind of meanders or symbolic figures, which perhaps signify difficulties besetting the communication of the inhabitants with the surrounding fields. In the lower part of the left-hand side there is a group of figures which seem to represent residences of chiefs, war houses, or redoubts, built near the principal entrance to the villages or to the city for its defense. There are found three figures of saurians, one with a large tail, on the side of the redoubts or fortified houses, as if representing the population, and two with small tails, which seem strange, and which walk toward the first. This inscription is evidently the most perfect and the most notable of those found till now in all America [?], not only by its perfect condition and dimensions, but also by the mode in which a series of ideas has here been brought together. The same author, on p. 552, furnishes copies of inscriptions carved on stones in the valley of the Rio Negro, and remarks: “In this series there are notable the two crowned personages [represented here in Fig. 112], one of whom holds a staff in the right hand, and below and under them there are two figures of capibars (sea-hogs) facing each other, and whose representation in black color resembles some figures from the inscriptions of North America.” [Illustration: FIG. 112.--Petroglyphs on the Rio Negro, Brazil.] The following account is in Dr. E. R. Heath’s (_a_) Exploration of the River Beni: Hieroglyphics were found on rocks at the falls and rapids of the rivers Madeira and Mamoré. * * * By accident we found some at the rapids at the foot of Caldierão do Inferno. Designs _d_ and _b_ are figures on the same rock side by side. _a_ is another face of the same rock 10 feet across. _e_ and _f_ are on the upper surface of a rock, and _c_ on one of its sides near the bottom; _g_ is upon a rock 15 feet above the surface of the river. Many more were on the other rocks, but our time did not permit further copying. Mr. T. M. Fetterman, my companion, and myself sketched as fast as possible.