forms a platform upon which is placed a second story. The platform thus formed is often of considerable extent, furnishing not only foundation for a second story, but also allowing of spacious walks, well paved and sometimes bordered with richly sculptured stones. I am well assured from various evidences that there once existed upon many of these platforms, terraces, hanging gardens and subterranean reservoirs; these last I have found to be common; and, although many writers doubt their having been reservoirs, I am absolutely certain such was the fact. To me the evidences found are too clear to admit of any doubt. The principal portion of the edifice has a length, not including the various angles of the façade, of one hundred and seven feet, and a height from floor of first story to the roof of second of fifty-five feet. The right wing, placed at right angles with the principal structure, is one story high, with a façade facing east by south ninety-five feet long. This façade is elaborately carved and ornamented with figures in stone and stucco. To the left, and seemingly once connected in some manner with the principal edifice, is a building that may have been a left wing. From the comparatively small quantity of cut and worked stone lying between the two edifices I should judge that the connecting structure must have been of less massive nature than the remaining structures; a portal or open gate-way, perhaps. I have not included this structure in the dimensions given above. It is about seventy-five feet long with a façade, quite plain but pleasing, having as its characteristic feature a peculiar undulating line of figures, somewhat resembling rosettes, carved in stone, each of which has a cavity in its centre that probably held a delicate piece of carving or painting. A shallow cleft or gutter-like depression divides the façade vertically into two portions, each of which, as I show by the accompanying photograph, has its distinct form of the rosette ornament. This edifice, in connection with the one before mentioned, forms three sides of a hollow square,

opening to the south-east. A broad stairway extends from the court-yard formed by the hollow square in front of the principal portion of the edifice, up to the platform in front of the second story. Upon each side of this gradually widening stairway are elaborately carved and sculptured terraces. The whole edifice forms an imposing spectacle, grand even in its ruin. To the south and east are other edifices, smaller but still interesting. One of these is

especially noteworthy from the peculiar character of its cabalistic symbols and the almost perfect state in which I found them. In all of my expeditions among the ruins of Yucatan I have never encountered a façade with the stucco work upon it in such a perfect state as upon this small edifice at Kich-Moo. Serpent symbols, hieroglyphics, pillars, squares and a peculiar pyramidal arrangement of three balls or globes were all combined in such a manner as to leave no doubt in my mind that, had we the lore of the 'ancient ones,' the uses and purposes of the building would by them be rendered as clear as daylight. With only the knowledge of to-day it is but effort lost to speculate or theorize upon the facts presented or ideas indicated. The forms of the facts exist but the ideas are lost, and I believe irretrievably lost. It was a great sorrow to me that I was obliged to leave this edifice without taking a photograph of it. My long-suffering apparatus refused to work. Too many tumbles on the mountain slopes with a pack mule atop had conquered even its unyielding sides. It was only with great difficulty and the exercise of considerable ingenuity that I succeeded in taking a single photograph of Kich-Moo. Had there not been the extreme necessity and desire, on my part, to record the discovery and existence of these ruins in this manner, I doubt if I should have accomplished the photography of the principal edifice. And when the failure did come it was complete. I reluctantly packed up my dilapidated apparatus for the last time with great misgivings as to the success of the negatives exposed. My

fears were, for the most part, without foundation, as the accompanying photographs will prove."

Professor HAYNES moved that all the papers which had been read or presented be referred to the Committee of Publication.

The Recording Secretary, in seconding the motion, said that he was the more happy in doing so because Professor HAYNES had wisely omitted the customary clause of thanks in behalf of the Society. The voting of thanks in such cases had always seemed to him a somewhat perfunctory thing, and he hoped the simple form Professor HAYNES had adopted in making his motion might pass into a precedent. The motion was then adopted, and the meeting dissolved.

JOHN D. WASHBURN,

Recording Secretary.

REPORT OF THE COUNCIL.

THE Council of the American Antiquarian Society desire to make their one hundred and fifty-first semi-annual report. As was suggested at the annual meeting a departure from established custom has been made in the form of arrangement of the last report of the Council, by which the topic selected for special consideration in the report is kept distinctly apart from business relating exclusively to the Society. This change, made by the Committee of Publication, it is hoped will be acceptable, as it will facilitate reference to many interesting subjects, which were in danger of being buried, together with the title of the essay treated, in miscellaneous matter of the report. It is possible, also, that the same Committee may think best to print the biographical notices so separated from other text as to render their consultation more easy. The report of our Treasurer, Mr. Nathaniel Paine, gives us a very satisfactory statement of the condition of our funds, and shows us how much we are indebted to his skilful and unremitting oversight for the present safe and abiding character of our investments. In the biographical notice of our associate, the late Hon. Francis H. Dewey, LL.D., we have informed the Society of a very liberal provision made for the purchase of the biographies and the miscellaneous writings of distinguished judges and lawyers, by the gift of two thousand dollars, the income of which is to be applied to this object. When the time arrives for the payment of this bequest the Council will take appropriate official action and will report it to the Society.

The report of the Librarian, Mr. Barton, gives a detailed account of the present condition of our collections and the accessions of the past six months. It will be noticed that we have received in that time one thousand two hundred and

seventy-five bound books, three thousand nine hundred and thirty pamphlets, and seventy-seven bound and one hundred and sixty unbound volumes of newspapers. These gifts have been received from forty members, from one hundred and two persons non-members and from seventysix societies and institutions, making in all two hundred and eighteen sources of accession. This is a little more than an average semi-annual increase of our library. The use of our collections by scholars and students continues to grow, and the large number of gifts from others than members shows conclusively that the opportunity freely afforded for consultation is appreciated and gratefully recognized. It will be necessary for the Committee on the Library at once to provide more shelves in the lower room for the storage of such books as can be removed from the upper halls, and thus afford an opportunity for the better arrangement of the classified collections they contain.

The reports of the Treasurer and of the Librarian, which form a part of the report of the Council, are herewith submitted.

The Council are in receipt of a biography of Señor Dr. Gumesindo Mendoza, a foreign member of the Society, whose death was mentioned in the report of the Council, April 28, 1886. It was prepared at the request of our Librarian by Dr. Manuel Villada, Professor of Geology and Paleontology, in the Museo Nacional de México, and at the personal solicitation of Professor F. Ferrari Pery, of the Military College at Tacubaya, and it is the first and only notice we have seen.

Three of our associates have died since the October meeting, namely, James Carson Brevoort, Francis Henshaw Dewey and Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden.

Señor Dr. Gumesindo Mendoza was born of humble parentage in the town of Aculco, district of Jilotepec, Mexico, in the year 1829. He was educated by a priest,