ANCIENT D WELLINGS OF THE RIO VERDE VALLEY. 757 



In other parts of the building several bone implements, includ- 

 ing a corn-shucker and a handsomely wrought marlin- spike, fash- 

 ioned from the leg-bone of deer, were obtained. Scalps or head- 

 dresses were also unearthed. Indeed, the materials here found 

 formed quite an extensive collection, including numerous food 

 articles, bones of various animals, pieces of cloth, matting and 

 basket-work, ropes and cords of cotton and yucca, sticks for fire- 

 making, knitting or weaving, and many other uses. 



None of the ancient buildings of this region exceed this one in 

 picturesque grandeur, although many are more extensive. Its 

 very location excites admiration and inspires respect for those 

 who built it, whatever may have been the motive which prompted 

 to the selection of such a site ; nor is it lacking in architectural 

 beauty. Its existence proves its great strength. 



Of the ruined pueblos, an extensive group of buildings on the 

 left bank of the Verde River, six miles northwest of Fort Verde, 

 Arizona, may be fairly considered a representative example. 

 This pueblo consisted of two terraced buildings surmounting a 

 limestone cliff. The larger one, in which I have made some ex- 

 ploration, faces the Verde, the other fronting on a side canon to 

 the south ; the walls of the latter, as well as the face of the cliff, 

 contain numerous cave-dwellings, in which sundry articles of 

 pottery and basket-work, as well as stone tools, were exhumed. 

 The accompanying plan (Fig. 12) exhibits the relations of these 

 structures. This ruin, which does not differ materially from 

 many others in the Verde region, is quite similar to the inhabited 

 villages of the Moquis of Eastern Arizona and the modern pue- 

 blos of New Mexico. As it was conveniently accessible from the 

 fort, I made it the subject of some research, and caused consider- 

 able excavations to be made in parts of the larger building, and 

 also in the caves of the adjacent canon. 



The larger edifice had been three stories in height in front, 

 where it rested upon the level rock, thence terraced down the 

 slope of a ravine behind it, the lower tiers of rooms having ap- 

 parently, been but a single story in height. Previous to my first 

 visit the front of the building had been thrown down over the 

 cliff by the white settlers to supply material for repairing an old 

 acequia, which has since served the whites, as it did the cliff- 

 dwellers of old, with water for irrigating purposes. Several of 

 the ranchmen in the vicinity called my attention to articles made 

 of pottery, and a varied assortment of interesting relics, which 

 they had secured when tearing down the ruin, in which they 

 claimed to have discovered dozens of human skeletons, one of 

 gigantic stature (the usual story), and a quantity of burial urns 

 and other vessels of pottery and stone. These accounts were in 

 some measure substantiated by the abundance of broken pottery, 



