362 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



MEXICAN ANTIQUITIES. 



LIEUT. SIMPSON, of the U. S. Topographical Engineers, has recent- 

 ly made a report to his bureau of a journey made by him with a body 

 of troops from Santa Fe, ria Santo Domingo, to Janez, thence north- 

 westerly, through a hitherto unexplored region, to the mouth of the 

 renowned canon of Chaille, from which point he returned, by Lagu- 

 na, to Albuquerque and Santa Fe. The whole distance travelled, 

 out and back, was 585 miles, occupying 40 days. During the march 

 many interesting discoveries were made. Lieut. Simpson says : 

 " All along the route we met with objects of interest, but what excit- 

 ed our curiosity more than any thing else was a series of ruins in the 

 canon of Chacco, which, doubtless, from their locality, appearance, 

 and numbers, are the veritable remains of the Aztecs of the twelfth 

 century ; the locality of which, on the authority of some of the maps, 

 Humboldt has ascribed to the vicinage of the very spot where they 

 were found. These ruins are of an exceedingly interesting character, 

 both on account of the mechanical skill and taste which they exhibit, 

 and of the undoubted evidence which they display of having been 

 erected at a very remote period. The Indians of the present day 

 know nothing of them, except that, according to tradition, they were 

 once inhabited by a people which came from the North ; that Monte- 

 zuma was the governor of this people ; and that, after living here for 

 a period, they dispersed, some eastwardly, towards the Rio Grande, 

 and others southwardly, towards the city of Mexico. 



" Each pueblo is a simple structure, covering, in some instances, as 

 much as two acres in extent; indicating, in places, by the still standing 

 walls, four stories, and containing as many as three and four hundred 

 rooms. The main walls, which have plain surfaces throughout their 

 whole extent on the exterior, are very nearly three feet thick at the base, 

 and retreat on the inner side by a series of small jogs from bottom to 

 the top, thus lessening the thickness gradually from the bottom upwards. 

 The whole structure is built of a beautifully compact lamellar sand- 

 stone ; the inner portion of this kind of stone and of clay mortar ; and 

 the outer portion faced with pieces of rectangular exactness, so thin 

 that three inches may be considered as their maximum thickness, and 

 three quarters of an inch their least. The general appearance of the 

 face of the building, at a little distance off, is that of a magnificent 

 piece of mosaic work. 



" Another object of interest, which the expedition has enabled us to 

 see, was the far-famed canon of Chaille, which has ever been regarded 

 as the stronghold of the Navajoes, on account of, the immense depth 

 and inaccessibility of its walls, and the impregnable fort which it is 

 said to contain. The idea of the existence of the fort we are now en- 

 abled to explode. 



"A third object of interest which the expedition has brought to 

 light is the existence of a rock of magnificent proportions and of fair 

 surface, upon which were found inscribed, in some instances, in beauti- 

 ful and deeply-engraven characters, the names of a number of persons, 

 in connection with the dates of their passing by the locality, and some 



