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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



and a half feet in thickness, sometimes plastered on the inside. 

 The upper walls were doubtless of adobe, as the mined pile con- 

 tains a large quantity of that material. There is a natural stone- 

 qnarry in the rear of the buildings. 



The rooms were spacious and the floors smoothly plastered. 

 Beneath them were found vaults, plastered within, containing 



Fig. 15. — Ladle from Ruins near the Verde River. 



human skeletons. In one room, ranged along two sides, close to 

 the substantial partition walls, were tombs devoted exclusively to 

 the sepulture of infants and children. The vaults were covered 

 with large, flat stones, some of which were painted red. In one 

 of them an olla was found, with the skeleton of an infant. The 



Fig. 16. — Ancient Pottery from the Verde Valley. 



bodies apparently had not been incased in burial clothes, as was 

 the case with those found in the burial caves of Clear Creek, as 

 well as some of the adult skeletons exhumed from other parts of 

 this building. 



This casa proved quite productive in mineral and bone mate- 

 rial, but most of the more perishable articles had been destroyed. 



