F. GEOGRAPHY. 285 



De Chelly, the party now traveled northward toward the 

 Sierra Abajo, up a stream known as Epsom Creek, from the 

 water which is found near its head tasting and operating 

 like that salt. The usual indefinite ruins which occur on the 

 lowlands continued up this valley over thirty miles. To 

 the west was a labyrinth of canons running off into those of 

 the Great Colorado, an examination of some of which dis- 

 covered many cave and cliff houses and towns, all of the 

 same general type as the others. The ruins gradually di- 

 minished as they approached the Sierra Abajo, and several 

 days spent in the examination of the canons and plateaus 

 about it and the Sierra La Sal failed to bring to light any 

 more evidence of their occupation. 



Nearly opposite the Sierra Abajo, or Blue Mountains, as 

 they are locally known, heads the great canons and valley of 

 the Montezuma, which empties into the San Juan. Here the 

 bottoms of the canons have once supported a very thickly 

 settled community. There is almost a continuous series of 

 ruins for a distance of twenty-five miles. This in one canon 

 only, but all the others contain numerous remains, chiefly in 

 cliff houses and towns. In the main canon, first spoken of, 

 are two ruins notable for the size of the stones employed in 

 their construction. In one, built upon a small isolated table- 

 land in the middle of the valley, are stones set upon end, six 

 feet in length by eighteen inches square, and ranged along the 

 walls a distance of twenty-five or thirty yards. Another case 

 is where stones seven feet in height (above ground), and twen- 

 ty inches square, are standing perpendicularly about five feet 

 apart, and form one side of a wall inclosing the ruins of a 

 large, important building. Throughout the canons every 

 available defensive point has been utilized, and are now 

 covered with the remains of heavy walls and large blocks 

 of houses. Another singular feature was the number of holes 

 cut into the perpendicular lower wall of the canon for the 

 purpose of ascending the rock, holes just large enough to 

 give a hand and foot hold, and leading either to some walled- 

 up cave or to a building erected above. Some of these steps 

 ascended the nearly perpendicular face of the rock for 150 or 

 200 feet. On exposed surfaces disintegration has almost en- 

 tirely weathered away the holes, while on more protected 

 walls they are deep enough to still answer their original 



