Although nothing like a thorough exploration of the state has ever been made, yet the uniformity of the remains discovered at different points enables us to form a clear idea of the character, if not of the full extent, of her antiquities, which for convenience in description may be classified as follows: I. Mounds, sepulchres, excavations, and other comparatively permanent works; II. Figures painted or cut on rocks or cliffs; III. Statues or idols of stone; IV. Stone weapons, implements, and ornaments; V. Pottery; VI. Articles of metal. Remarking that nowhere in Nicaragua have traces of ruined cities been found, nor even what may be regarded positively as the ruins of temples or other buildings, I proceed to describe the first class, or permanent monuments, beginning in the south-west, following the coast region and lake islands northward, and then returning to the south-eastern province of Chontales. First on the south are the cemeteries of Ometepec Island, which is by some supposed to have been the general burial place of all the surrounding country. These cemeteries, according to Woeniger, are found in high and dry places, enclosed by a row of rough flat stones placed a few inches apart and projecting only slightly above the surface of the ground. Friederichsthal represents the sepulchres as three feet deep and scattered at irregular intervals over a plain. Boyle found both fixed cemeteries fenced with a line of heavy stones and also separate graves.[II-31] Thus no burial mounds proper seem to exist on the island. The ashes or unburned bones of the dead are found enclosed in large earthen vases, together with what may be considered as the most valued property of the deceased, or the most appropriate gifts of friends, in the shape of weapons, ornaments, vessels, and implements of stone, clay, and perhaps metal, all of which will be described in their turn. When the burial urn is found to contain unburned bones, its mouth is sometimes closed with the skull; in other cases one or more inverted earthen pans are used for that purpose. [Sidenote: EL BAÑO AT MASAYA.]